The Selected
by Yuki Loxar
Summary: Gray is awoken in an unknown location, seemingly devoid of emotion and memories.He is then surrounded by unknown people who claim to be his friends. But,problems arise in the group after. In the end, Gray is left to choose from his group of 'allies'. But with all these secrets, who can he really turn to? ON INDEFINITE HIATUS.
1. Prolouge

First Fanfic. Ever. I've read lots though. EDIT: Revised Version!

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><p><em>In an unknown location, a figure sat on a throne, silent. But smiling. <em>

_Her smile turned into a frown as she looked to her left, toward the ground. Something was on the ground there. A body. _No, that's just Gray-chan _she thought, smile returning to her face. She stood up and walked over to her 'Gray-chan's' body. He was laying face down, arms in front of him. She sat down next to his head, smile widening. She out stretched her hand toward his head. She giggled as her fingers went through his hair. _

_Someone groaned behind her. With a sigh, she turned, stood up and walked toward the source of the groan. A boy was chained to the wall, bound by his wrists and ankles. She caressed his face as the groaning suddenly went silent. "Good boy," she said as she looked to the side, observing. Along the wall were boys and girls chained to wall by their wrists and ankles. All unconscious. The woman's soft smile turned into a sinister grin. "Soon, soon everything will be just fine" she murmured. "Right, Gray-chan?"_

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><p><em>She walked along the wall, observing every prisoner. Her smile faded as she walked. Upon reaching the end of the corridor she sighed. " Everything is always the same, it's so boring here". She walked to the center of the vast room, standing directly below the large but dark chandelier. <em>

_Raising both hands above her head, she performed a chant; " Da mihi virtutem sentiendi, Secreta universi. Amunet" She bellowed to the sky. A purple glow covered her hands._

_After a few seconds she smiled and lowered them. In her hands was a large, tattered brown book with silver lining the pages. She smiled widely as she set the book on the ground before plopping down herself._

_With wide eyes she carefully opened the book. A bright light filled the dim room, nearly blinding the woman. 'That book was emitting that blinding light' she thought. The book was open, yet the pages were blank. She flipped the page, blank. She turned many more pages, desperate. Blank, blank, blank, and blank._

'It's not here?! Where could it possibly have hidden the secre-' _Her thoughts suddenly went blank as her eyes widened with realization. In seconds, she stood and was walking at a fast pace toward her wall of prisoners. She scanned the wall until she saw _her_. She calmed herself as she walked over to _her_. _

_She was soon standing in front of a girl chained to the wall, in the same fashion as the others. She had navy blue hair that had a single streak of blue. It was curled tightly at the ends. The girl was wearing a velvet colored shirt that hung loosely from her shoulders, held by the straps. "Astrid," the woman whispered. Astrid did not respond, pissing the woman off further. '_Of course she won't respond, she half-dead' _the woman reminded herself. "Astrid, you'd best lift your head, " the woman said. Astrid slowly lifter her head, her unkempt hair falling in her eyes. _

_It took a minute for Astrid's eyes to adjust, but when they did, she glared daggers at the woman in front of her. "Roseia," Astrid spat. "Nice to see you too," Roseia drawled , forcing a smile on her face. "What do you want? If you want to torture me, better do it now before I can pass out again," Astrid teased, regardless of her beaten state. "Amunet, unlock it," Roseia said bluntly. Astrid released a loud and slightly demented laugh. "Is that what you want?!" Astrid bellowed, glancing at the forgotten book still on the ground. "IF you want that, let us go," Astrid demanded. Roseia clicked her tongue,"You know I can't do tha-" "RELEASE MY FRIENDS!" Asrid interrupted. "ALL OF THEM! MINHO! DIA! GRA-" _

_Astrid heard the hit before she felt it. Roseia was giving her a look full of pure hatred. She leaned forward, right in Astrid's face and hissed, "Listen to me little girl, I'm more than happy to dispose of those two pieces of garbage in human form but," She took a deep breath. "Gray-chan is mine. Forever. You and I both know that". Astrid spit blood in her face, "Screw you". Roseia laughed as if their fight had never happened._

_She walked back to her Gray-chan who was still motionless, but was now lying on his side. He was still unconscious, but he shifted slightly when Roseia approached. With a huff, she sat down next to him and began playing with his hair again. She didn't notice that Astrid's constant whispers of apologies to Gray. She was oblivious when a dark pink, almost red magic circle appeared in front of Astrid and above the book. She didn't notice Astrid's smile._


	2. Resistance

**Hello again~! I'm so glad the story is doing well, I honestly didn't think I'd have this many follower and readers so soon. It's only been 2 chapters after all. Anyways,important thing to note about this story: There will be quite a few chapters in italics, meaning they aren't happening in current time. So it'll be a while before the other characters come in. Please review! If you have any suggestions, let me know.**

**I don't own Fairy Tail, anything referenced, any songs used.**

_Gray-chan's hair was so fun to play with. His bang almost reached the tip of his nose, most of it was brushed to the side though. She liked it that way, it was cute. He was still lying on his side, but his head was now in her lap. He'd been asleep for quite a while now, she often wondered what he was dreaming about. She would've loved for him to stay like this, but she also wanted to talk to him. She wanted to hear his voice more._

_She already heard it often since he talked in his sleep. The words were incoherent for the most part, so she heard every fourth word. He suddenly shifted, moving his arm from next to his head to next to his abdomen. She took his hand in hers, smiling down at him. _

**zing**

_She dropped his hand the second his magic power zapped her. 'He may not resist me, but his soul __**still**_ _repels me ?!' she thought angrily. This happened often. She'd make a move for him, his soul would repel against her, brief pain, then frustration. 'It's not Gray-chan's fault, it _their fault'_. The peoples' spirits who guard his soul; Ul, Ultear, Juvia and Silver. She could control his mind all she wanted, but they made it impossible for her will to invade his soul. She slowly leaned down, her focus on his sleeping face. She put her forehead to his, ignoring the pain. _

_Astrid hated the way that witch touched her friend. Caressing his face, kissing him. It made her sick. _

_At the moment she was glad Roseia was distracted. She was currently reconstructing the link between her and the book (hence the magic circles). She already felt magic returning to her. 'A little more, just a little more time' she thought desperately, eyes darting back and forth between the book and Roseia. _

_Suddenly, the magic circles disappeared. 'Yes!' she thought happily, almost saying it aloud. She turned her head to the side, scanning her fellow prisoners until she saw him. __**MINHO! **__she shouted to him telepathically. He twitched slightly, but didn't wake up. She tried again, with more force and urgency. __**MINHO, GET UP! SNAP OUT OF IT! **__This time he jumped, eyes flying open._

_**Calm down, it's me**_ _she said, fighting back a rush of joy. __**Astrid…? **__came a hesitant reply. He was looking at her now, a baffled expression on his face. __**We need to get these chains off. Can you do that? **__No response. She was about to ask again then she noticed his eyes. They were no longer looking at her face, but lower. She followed his gaze, and found it was directed to her chest. She felt heat rising to her face as she realized just how much her shirt was ripped. _

_And she wasn't exactly flat chested._

_**NOW IS NOT THE TIME**_ _she shouted into his mind. He flinched from the force of it, then met her eyes again. __**Now, get these off of me**_ _she thought, jerking her chin to her chains. _

_He narrowed his eyes at the chains. They suddenly disconnected from the wall, making Astrid fall to the ground with a thump. 'Crap!' Astrid thought as Roseia turned at the sound. Their widened eyes met as Roseia's eyebrows shot up._

_**Don't stop, this is your chance!**_

_Astrid scrambled to her feet as Roseia's face contorted in rage. Astrid made a mad dash for the book, as Roseia got to her feet. Astrid was in arms length of the book when she was suddenly sent flying into the wall. _

_In a flash, Roseia had managed to pin her to the wall, holding her by her neck. "You don't learn do you?" Roseia said menacingly. Her grip tightened with each word, while Astrid thrashed in vain. _

"_Sto...it….ro..a.." Astrid struggled to form a complete word with the air she had. "This is your 36th time trying to escape, when will you realize," Roseia said. "There is no esca-" _

_Roseia stopped mid-sentence, then screamed in pain. She pressed both hands to her temples, letting Astrid fall to ground in a coughing fit. " AAAAAAAAAH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! STOP IT!" She screamed, falling to her knees. Astrid smirked weakly at her, and said "Don't screw with a psychic". _

**YAY ASTRID SHOWS OFF HER POWERS! The action starts now. **

**As always, thank you for reading. REVIEW.**


	3. To Awaken Him

**Hello again~! I'm glad the story is doing well. Please review! If you have any suggestions, let me know.**

**I don't own Fairy Tail, anything referenced, any songs used.**

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><p><em>Astrid smirked as she towered over the still screaming Roseia. "This is for all of those whip marks" she spat. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! STOP! GOD IT HURTS!" Roseia cried in agony. <em>

_**Astrid, this is not the time,**_ _A voice in her head said. She frowned and turned around to where to other prisoners were still chained, except one. "Minho" she said aloud. He was walking toward her with a small smile, observing Roseia. "No I've got this under control, go get Gray" she ordered, glancing at said boy's body. _

_Minho stopped with a sigh. "You always get the fun part" he half-sulked while trudging over to Gray. "NO!" Roseia cried from the ground. She was crawling towards Gray, ignoring Minho and the pain._

"_G-Gray-chan is mine. I won't let you have him, no one can have him" she rasped. Astrid sneered down at her, but let her crawl. _

_When Roseia got to Gray's body she collapsed onto it. "Forgive me for being in such a state Gray-chan" she whispered. She brushed the hair out of his eyes gently. "Gray-chan, please," she whispered as Astrid walked over to them. "Wake up. You've rested enough" she finished. She sensed Astrid was behind her now, but she didn't care. Not when Gray-chan was here. _

_She hugged him, ignoring all of the pain. She pleaded for him to wake up as Astrid closed in. "Roseia," Astrid began. "No,no,no," Roseia whispered. "You have two options,"_

_**No,no,no,no**_

"_Either you release him and be left alone,"_

_**No,no,no,no,no**_

"_Or be banished to Detrum for your sins"._

_**No,no,no,no,no,no**_

"_I refuse to leave him! Gray-chan is…...he is…..!"_

"**...**_Very well, Roseia"_

_Astrid nodded to Minho who clasped his hands together. "Anima peste: Detrum" He chanted quietly. "Minho, you don't want to do this" Roseia pleaded as black and white particles emitted from her body. Minho gave no response._

_Roseia's body started fading out of sight as more particles came from her. "Don't worry Gray-chan. I won't leave you alone" she murmured._

_She was transparent at this point. Gray's body went through her and to the ground. "I love you" she whispered as she disappeared completely._

_The particles dissipated when Minho let his hands drop to his sides. "Good job" Astrid said quietly. "Just go get him already" he said. Astrid walked over to Gray and dropped to her knees._

_She put their foreheads together and closed her eyes. "Excuse me for intruding Gray," she murmured. "but I'll be entering your mindscape now". Astrid's body went limp after a few seconds._

"_Good luck" Minho said softly. He turned and walked toward the wall of prisoners._

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><p><strong>Astrid's Ability is more than meets the eye. And we get a clue about Minho's power. Prepare your brain for the next chapter MWAHAHAHA.<strong>


	4. His Mindscape

**CHAPTER 5 WOOOO! We're going into Gray's mind. I made it a messed up place, so things might get confusing and disturbing. I might slow down the updates for this story, ONLY BECAUSE I don't want to run out of ideas suddenly and have to take a break because of author's block. I had enough trouble writing chapter 4. ANYWAY onto the story. R&R.**

**THIS IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF MIND/STOMACH**

**I own nothing except the plot and OCs.**

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><p><em><strong>Astrid opened her eyes. As she thought, Gray was no where to be seen. <strong>_

_**She sat up and looked around, then gasped. There was no color, anywhere.**_

_**She noted that even she was colorless. She was sitting on a tiled floor that seemed to expand for miles, it looked that way with the fog. She seemed to be the only living being there. **_

_**How ironic, a gray world inside of him.**_

_**She stood up and started walking what she thought was north. After a few minutes the fog dissipated to reveal a 2D pink door. **__Finally, some color. _

_**There was no doorknob or handle so she pushed it open. On the other side was a drastic change in scenery. It was a field of flowers. A beautiful blend of pink, yellow, blue, purple etc. **_

_**She walked through the doorway and the door shut behind her. She walked across the flower field, impressed. Eventually she came across something that seemed out of place. Two wooden chairs, side by side. A big puddle of blue paint was beside one of them.**_

_**She couldn't help but smile at the sight. **__So this is what's left of his former lover__**. She decided to experiment with this place, to see what his universe made possible. She took a deep breath, gazing into the strangely reflective blue paint.**_

_**And jumped in.**_

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><p><em>I knew it.<em>

_**Astrid was falling from the sky. Not any normal sky. Gray's sky.**_

_**Below her was an ocean. She dove into the water, but felt no pain from the impact.**_

_**There was no sign that she'd fallen through. The water hadn't so much as rippled. She found she could breath underwater. **_

_**She'd sunk several feet below the surface at this point in time. She swam upwards and was about to break the surface when she slammed into something. Baffled, she tried to go above again.**_

_**Blocked**_

_A barrier?_

_**She pressed her palm to where it should have gone above the water, but instead rested against a smooth surface. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to bend the rules.**_

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><p><em><strong>A thump<strong>_

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><p><em><strong>She opened her eyes to see three figures looking down at her from atop the water. They were <strong>_**standing on the water.**

_**They looked like people without features. Silhouettes in 3D, no color, had what she thought were their heads tilted down toward her. **_

_**She had no chance of communicating with them.**_

_**So she closed her eyes again and focused hard on the barrier. **_

_**A crack. Another. Another. Many more. **_

_**The glass shattered and she stepped through the mirror frame, opening her eyes.**_

_What else have you had time to create in this guilt twisted mind of yours? _

_**She had a short fall before landing on…...**__A skeleton?_

_**Her eyes widened at her new surroundings.**_

_Skeletons, corpses, and blood._

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><p><em><strong>She quickly put a hand over her mouth the prevent hurling.<strong>_

_**She was in what seemed to be the ruins of a town.**_

_**She was standing in a shallow but vast ocean of blood with corpses floating around.**_

_**She saw another door in the distance. She made a run for it. Not caring how she got to the door, just getting there soon.**_

_Is this what Deliora did to his village?! No, not even a demon could be capable of this. It must be the madness, it's enhancing the fear and-_**squish**

_**She froze at the feel of her bare foot stepping in something soft. She slowly turned and looked down, dreading the sight. **_

_A skull._

_A rotting skull. _

_I stepped on a rotting skull._

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><p><em><strong>Astrid slammed the crimson door behind her, gasping for breath.<strong>_

_H-How could one person be capable of so much pain and despair?! It's not human! Please let him still be sane. Please,please please._

_**She took three trembling steps before stumbling and falling. She the impact of the fall snapped her out of her stupor.**_

_**She slowly took in her surroundings. She was in an…...art gallery...?**_

_**She didn't feel up for walking, so she crawled.**_

_**She crawled on a checkered floor, in a corridor with velvet colored walls decorated with portraits of people.**_

_**She didn't recognize any of the people as she crawled by their paintings.**_

_A pink haired man with a wide grin and fists covered in fire._

_A tuff scarlet haired woman holding a long thin sword that resembled Minho's._

_A cute blue haired teen with a smile and wings on her back._

_A bubbly looking blonde wielding 9 golden keys._

_Two cats: One Blue, one white._

_A man with silver/white hair with a mature look about him._

_A pretty woman with short raven hair and one ice leg_

_Another pretty raven woman with hair that reached her lower back._

_A woman with wavy blue hair and winter clothes._

_A man with a scar on his forehead, raven hair, and cross earrings_

_A woman with navy blue hair pulled back into a ponytail._

_A boy with orange hair and a suit, wearing shades._

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><p><em><strong>She bumped into a door. It was white and clean. She got to her feet with a sigh.<strong>_

_Here goes nothing….._

_**The sight was breath taking. It looked as if she was walking on the sky, clouds and all. A soft breeze wafted through the area when she entered. She'd only put a foot in when she froze, gasping.**_

**There he was, sitting alone in a wooden chair. His side to her. His hair shadowed his eyes, but she knew it was him.**

_**She ran over to him, tears of joy escaping her eyes. She ran directly in front of him. As soon as he lifted his head, she put her forehead to his.**_

_**She felt herself drifting away, fading out.**_

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><p><em><strong>Astrid opened her eyes. Gray's body was still in front of her. She slowly lifted her head and looked anxiously at his face.<strong>_

_**Nothing.**_

_**No sign of anything**_

_**She felt her eyes burn at the thought of going back into his mindscape. She was about to stand up until she saw **_**them.**

Those dark eyes of his.

Staring at her, sending a silent message,

_Thank you_

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><p>Chapters like these are why this is rated T. YAY Gray's awake! Can someone name the people in the portraits?<p> 


	5. His Awakening

**AAAAWWW YEEEAAAH! CHAPTER 6. Did you get the reference? My imagination is starting to slow down for this story, so if you have any ideas, just say so in a review or PM me. Congrats to AsDarknessSreads for guessing every single person. Maybe I should make these challenges my thing…**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except the plot and OCs**

**REVISED VERSION**

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><p>Astrid's gray eyes stared down into Gray's black ones. "Gray," she breathed. He looked weary and slightly drowsy. His eyes were unfocused for a few seconds until they locked onto hers. With a little assistance on her side, he got into a sitting position.<p>

He looked around the room in a daze. When he saw the chains on the wall, he froze. "Don't worry, it's not your fault," she said softly, trying to stabilize him. He slowly turned back to her, staring. An awkward silence settled between them as they stared at each other. "Hey," Astrid started, looking worried. "Do…do you recognize me?"

He did nothing but stare at her blankly. After a few moments, he seemed to realize she was addressing him. He started to say something then stopped, confused at something."What's wrong?" she asked. He just shook his head. "Well…don't worry," she said trying to sound cheerful and failing. "I can wait."

"Finally done huh?" Minho's voice made both her and Gray jump. She whirled around to glare at him. "I finally saw the outside of this cage, but not the prison," he said. Finally noticing Astrid's glare he raised his eyebrows ,"What?"

Astrid just sighed as Gray looked back and forth between her and Minho. "Stupid," she muttered, standing. "Well now that Gray is up, we can go look for Dia-chan" she said. She started walking toward Minho when she noticed Gray wasn't following. He was still sitting on the floor, looking up at her. "C'mon, we have to go get Dia," Astrid urged him.

He merely tilted his head to the side questioningly. That's right, he doesn't recognize her name either. How convenient Astrid thought. "Gray, just follow me okay? I promise it won't hurt," she said. He blinked at her. "Then we can get out of here. "After staring at her for a few seconds, he stood up. Thank God. She led him to where Minho was standing. "Gray, this is Minho. He's our friend," she said, gesturing to Minho.

Minho grinned. "You understand us Gray?" he asked. Astrid let out a puff of air in relief. Without warning, Gray suddenly moved until he was right in Minho's face. Said boy recoiled automatically. "W-what? What is it?" Minho said, leaning back slightly.

"Why is it so cold here?" Gray finally spoke. Minho frowned slightly. "I guess it is a little cold in here," he commented. The second after he said it, his eyes widened. "Wait, you're an ICE MAGE," he exclaimed. "You shouldn't feel cold!"

"It's so cold..." Gray muttered, taking a step back. Minho facepalmed and shook his head. "Whatever Roseia did to you must've really messed you up." "Got that right," Astrid piped up. She walked past the chains that once held her, through the doors that once sealed her in. She looked back at Gray, who dawned a slightsmile. Astrid smiled as well. She looked forward, walking towards where she knew Dia was sure to be.

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><p><strong>This chapter might seem rushed, but it all came to me at once, to I had to type all of it. You might be confused on what exactly Gray is to them, what happened between them, its okay. I want you to be. This is a suspense story after all. Next up is Dia!<strong>

**I just noticed this is kinda from Astrid's POV.**


	6. That Play

**Heyo~! I was right about slower updates. Tbh I couldn't think of a lot of stuff for this chapter and I had a project to do. But at least I update my stories often, every other day maybe. Unlike some other authors **_**cough**_ **IcePrinceRay **_**cough**_**. This chapter has a kind of dark theme, but it's the song lyrics, not me. I'm not some psycho. I only like it because of the way it sounds. Anyway, enjoy!**

**I own nothing (Especially the songs used) but the plot and OCs**

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><p>"This is it," Minho said. The group in front of a set of large wooden doors. There was a label for the room right next to them, which Astrid was currently scowling at. <em>Everlasting Night <em>is read.

"I know it's bitter, but if ya scowl like that, you'll mess up your face even more," Minho teased. She glared at him. He laughed it off. "Whatever," she muttered as she pushed the doors open. The room inside was a theater, stage and all. Minho looked around in slight awe, while Gray seemed slightly confused with the change in setting. Astrid was grudgingly impressed.

"Dia!" Minho called for his missing comrade in the empty and dark theater. No response. Minho started walking around calling her name. Still nothing. Astrid was about to start investigating as well when suddenly, the curtains on the stage rose. They all toward the sound, surprised. Then they saw her.

Dia was standing on the stage in a villager costume, bathed in the spotlight.

They were about to call to her when 7 other figures walked onto the stage. Two blonde twins, girl and boy. A purple haired man in a butler's outfit. A green haired girl with a maid outfit. A brown haired woman with a fancy kimono type dress. A blue haired man in a fancy suit. A pink haired girl in a fancy outfit.

They stage was set for a play of sorts. They got into position, including Dia.

Role of Doll Boy: "Try to remember now;"

Role of Doll Girl: "How did it all begin?"

Role of Master: "A letter on a stormy night;"

Role of Maid: "Who was it who was betrayed...?"

Role of Mistress: "Take the "truth" you wanted gone,"

Role of Lady: "And hide it in the coffins..."

Role of Butler: "Tonight, we shall perform it once again:"

Mastermind: "A most magnificent night... ∞"

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><p>Astrid's eyes widened, <em>'Is that…. the cursed play…?!'<em>

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><p>Mistress: "In the glow of an eerie red full moon, a storm brews this night..."<p>

Lady: "On such a night, on such a night..."

Maid: "An incident is sure to occur! "

Master: "A vampire out for blood?"

Doll Girl: "A werewolf BEARing HIS fangs?"

Doll Boy: "A FranKENstein's monSTER?"

Butler: "An uninvited guest?"

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><p>Astrid ran toward the stage.<p>

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><p>Lady: "It's just sooo boooring..."<p>

Doll Girl: "It's just SO borING...?"

Doll Boy: "It's! JUST! So! BORing!"

Maid: "I feel like I'm going to die! "

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><p>Minho was already in front of the stage, staring at the actors.<p>

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><p>Butler: "Why, it's so late at night..."<p>

Maid: "What could someone possibly want? "

Dia: "Sorry to bother, but could I stay for just a single night?"

Mistress: "My, my..."

Master: "The forest is dangerous at night..."

Lady: "Come right in, please!"

Doll Boy: "Looks LIKE we've FOUND..."

Doll Girl: "Our UNinvited GUEST..."

Hosts: "What an ominous storm tonight..."

Maid: "Perhaps something may occur? "

Lady: "So then shall we make merry?"

Butler: "Until daybreak comes,"

Doll Twins: "Shall we show you a night so magnificent..."

Seven: "To keep you awake?"

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><p>He wasn't responding.<p>

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><p>Tonight, so that the world shall be tamed,<p>

Shall we become slaves to the lead role's play?

The script is controllingly captivating,

And this EncorE follows it to the letter!

'It's too late' she realized, 'he's enchanted'

Soon the "audience" is taken by applause,

And yearns for "eternity in a moment";

"May this magnificent night go on!", they pray...

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><p>She was about to climb on the stage to stop them. But then…<p>

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><p>Butler: "Upon waking, hm, isn't this odd?"<p>

Maid: "This isn't like any place I've ever seen! "

Role of Villager: "Where is this?! Why are they..."

Role of Villager & Doll Twins: "Dolls, you ask?!"

Master: "The play's set, and the cast too..."

Mistress/Lady: "Have those "lies" become "real"?!"

Role of Villager: "Take me back at once... Back to the real world!"

The beauty of the play hit her hard.

Hosts: "The world of an undawning night..."

Maid: "Did the play stop? "

Lady: "Because you made a mistake?"

Butler: "Must you alone..."

Doll Girl: "Try it AGain?"

Doll Boy: "To spin THE tale OF..."

Seven: "The perfect night!"

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><p>The second she touched the stage, Astrid found herself paralyzed.<p>

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><p>Tonight, we've been tamed by the world,<p>

And become "slaves" to the lead role's play...

Role of Villager: "I'm the only one who notices: this world is just a fake!"

All are swallowed up by the play,

And "time" becomes "eternity in a moment"...

Role of Villager: "I shout that this is all wrong, but it reaches no one's ears..."

Butler: "Still unable to find the stolen page,"

Maid: "Time just mercilessly passes by... "

Mistress: "How might the play come to an end?"

Role of Villager: "How might I be able to save everyone?"

Master: "So long as the lead role lives, the show must go on,"

Lady: "But even if the lead role dies, the show will still not end!"

Doll Girl: "Then can't we bring in "someone new"?"

Doll Boy: "And then we'll spin a new Page...!"

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><p>Gray pried his eyes away from the stage to look at his two frozen friends.<p>

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><p>Role of Villager: "It seems that what I must do to save everyone, after all,<p>

Is to squeeze my pocket, for what I find there is..."

Role of Villager: "The Endroll...?! With this, can I save them all...?!"

Role of Doll Boy: "Tonight, we'll tame "that girl"..."

Role of Doll Girl: "And bring "her" back from the grave..."

Role of Master: "The real and the fake..."

Role of Maid: "Shall be switched with this encore..."

Role of Mistress: "We'll keep it a secret to "her" alone,"

Role of Lady: "And for us all to return to reality,"

Role of Butler: "We seven shall perform..."

Lead Role: "A most magnificent night! AhahaHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Seven: "...!"

The lead role, betrayed by everything,

Was a ninth person, "someone's" substitute?!

In the perfectly plotted script,

It's all in accordance, this Bad ∞ End ∞ Night!

Soon the lead role is taken by madness,

Longing for the missing Page...

But "once again," it's now too late!

Time is up, you see...?

Role of Villager: "I fooound it!"

Tonight, so that the world shall be tamed,

Shall we become slaves to the lead role's play?

The script is controllingly captivating,

And this Encore follows it to the letter!

In the protection of kind "lies,"

Forget everything, and go to sleep!

And "once again," we shall perform... ∞

Seven: "On to the Encore - "

Role of Villager: "On to the Ending - "

In my shaking hands, I grip the knife,

And into the "unwanted reality," we return...!

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><p>Astrid blinked. 'What…?' The events from before rushed into her mind. Her eyes swept the stage, looking for her friend. Everyone and everything was gone, except two people. Dia and Gray.<p>

He was pinning her to stage floor by her shoulders. They seemed to be staring into each other's eyes intensely. His black ones staring into her brown ones calmly.

"Gray…kun….?"

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><p><strong>FINALLY ANOTHER CHAPTER! Took me a while to hunt down my muse, but I got it. I just realized that this story only has 11 reviews. Do you guys really have no suggestions? Anything? Is this story just that amazing? To try and change this, I shall make challenges. CHALLENGE OF THE CHAPTER: Who were the seven other actors? HINT: They're music involves technology. Also, this song was translated to English. <strong>

**Look up the Bad End Night series and listen to all of the songs IN ORDER.**


	7. The Escape

**Hello again. I'm officially unsure when I'll be updating this story again. I have caught the horror know as Author's Block, but I'm slowly recovering. Last chapter must've been confusing so I'll explain. But before that, big shout out to MiyuTanemura and yukiniki. I've read their stories (one each) and loved them, look 'em up! Also, I'll be attempting NaNoWriMo (writing a 50,000 word story by the end of the month) I'll fail that though. SO I'll be trying to reach my goal of at least 10,000 by the end of the month. I might finish NaNoWriMo by the end of the year though!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the OCs and the plot**

* * *

><p>Last chapter: Our trio go to a room labeled 'Night Series' and inside is a theater. They investigate when the curtains suddenly rise to reveal the one they were looking for. 7 other people go onto the stage and they perform an opera. It's cursed and Minho and Astrid get enchanted by it. The play ends and Astrid and Minho are released from the spell. Astrid sees that Gray is on stage, pinning down Dia.<p>

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><p>"<em>Gray….kun…?"<em>

_Dia stared into said boy's eyes. He blinked and sat back, releasing her shoulders. She sat up, blushing slightly. "Dia," he said, staring into her soul. "You're okay," she whispered, eyes tearing up. She leaned forward and hugged him tightly. He didn't return the affection, instead he went stiff as a board._

"_Hey lovebirds," Minho called from below. "Just kiss already". Dia's face went red and she scrambled away from Gray. "I-It's not like that Minho-kun!" she cried, flustered. Minho just laughed while Astrid smiled widely. Dia and Gray climbed down from the stage._

_Astrid hugged her as soon as her feet hit the ground. "Jeez, don't be so troublesome" Astrid said, bangs shadowing her eyes. Dia smiled softly and returned the gesture. "Sorry Astrid-chan" she said. After a few moments, they separated. _

_After a few minutes the quartet left the theater with a lighter atmosphere. "Now we can escape this place….right…?" Dia asked. "Right" Minho said, looking to Astrid for confirmation. She shook her head then said "I have to get something, it'll only take a second". And with that, she started walking toward the room in which Roseia perished. _

_After a few minutes she came back, holding the book. "Why do you need that thing?" he asked. "It's mine" she said. The large book suddenly glowed lavender and shrunk into the size of a tablet. Minho and Dia gaped at it while she just smirked. "Told ya" she said. _

"_Now where's the exit?" Astrid asked the group. They just stared at her in silence. Her jaw dropped. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS?!" She roared. Minho flinched then shouted at her, "How come you don't know?!" Red tick marks appeared on their heads as they started bickering. Dia weakly attempted to stop them, but was ignored. _

_Gray suddenly tugged on her skirt. Dia turned to face him with confusion. He pointed to the east hall and she understood instantly. She trusted his judgment completely. 'Gray-kun is, no, was the team strategist, surely he figured a way out' she thought confidently. As soon as that thought came to mind, an image flashed in her mind._

_Gray, wearing a white top (think of a composer's attire in white) and white pants, blue outlining the edges. He had a calculating expression._

_She shook her head. 'There's nothing to help him here, we need to escape first'. With that, she took off after him. It wasn't long before Minho and Astrid noticed they were now alone in the hall. Minho soon spotted the others down the east hall and sprinted after them beside Astrid._

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><p><em>Dia couldn't help but stare at him, they haven't seen each other in forever after all. She blushed when she noticed the way his hair fell in his eyes, he probably had to keep brushing it to the side. Almost as if hearing her thoughts, he brushed his bangs out of his eyes. She looked the rest of his body over and found nothing wrong, no sign of injuries. <em>

_She slowly moved her hand to the side, towards his. Their fingers brushed for a moment, causing her blush to darken a few shades. She took a deep breath and reached for his hand and succeeded. 'His hand is oddly warm' she thought as her face heated up more. Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind their close contact. She frowned slightly, 'Gray-kun hasn't even cracked a smile despite us being together again, I hope nothing's wrong…'_

_She was about to ask him when a body plowed into her from behind, sending her sprawling. "Ah…sorry Dia" she heard Minho's voice sound from above her. "Ack! Minho, get off me!" she shouted while rolling off of her stomach to her back. He was grinning sheepishly at her, but she could see he was holding back a laugh. She stood up with a huff._

_Astrid smacked Minho over the head, calling him an idiot for running so fast. Dia ignored them and was about to start walking again but froze. Gray was ahead of them which meant… 'Why didn't he stop to help me?' she thought, slightly deflated. She jogged to catch up to him along with the other two. She just now noticed the way he was walking. He was swaying slightly almost as if he was dizzy. _

_She also noticed his eyes, his pupils were dilated and distant. "Gray-kun…?" she called worriedly. He stopped and turned to look at her, but not seeing her. She automatically put her palm to his forehead and was surprised when her hand came away very warm. 'Is he getting sick now of all times?' she thought disbelievingly. She felt panic rise inside her. An ice mage couldn't get sick, at least, the last time she checked._

"_Something wrong?" Astrid asked, looking at Gray and Dia. "I think he might…..he might be sick…?" Dia said, biting her lip. Minho laughed until he saw the worry on her face. "Wait, seriously?" he asked, doing a double take at Gray. He felt Gray's forehead for himself and gasped. "It's warm!?" he exclaimed in horror. "This is another reason to hurry and get out of here" Astrid said seriously._

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><p><em>After a few minutes, Dia felt something she'd dreamt of feeling for a long time. A breeze. Her lips parted in shock before she took off toward the source of it. She reached a tunnel with a door that was open a tiny bit. She dragged the heavy door open, using all of the strength she could muster. As torturous as it was, she waited for the others to catch up.<em>

_When they were re-grouped, all of them tore down the dark tunnel, aiming for the light at the end of it. She felt her legs burn and her heart beating too fast, but she couldn't afford to stop now, not when she was this close to freedom. The light was so close now. _

_20 feet_

_10 feet_

_5 feet_

_She rammed into the hard surface of another door that was halfway open on her way out. She was aware of the other's footsteps not even a yard behind her as she ran blindly. After a minute she stopped to let her eyes adjust and to catch her breath. She felt something wet on her skin coming from the sky. She looked up and saw gray clouds above. Despite the weather she smiled and let tears of joy flow from her eyes._

_They were standing on now muddy soil, in the rain._

Outside.

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><p><strong>AN**

**WHEW! I MADE IT! Now for chapter 9 and possibly the start of 10. As always, review plz. **

**WISH ME LUCK ON THE CHALLENGE**


	8. Now What?

**Chapter 9 yay ~. I'm going to have start going hard core on this if I want to catch up to everyone else, it's not gonna be easy at all. Having all of these projects and assignments aren't helping. Just a warning, this chapter is going to switch in between POVS so try to keep track.**

**NOTE: Gray and co. have not been able to use their magic ever since escaping the prison. ANYWAY wish me luck and enjoy!**

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><p><em>Squish squish squish<em>

The sound of the mud beneath their feet was joy to their ears. By this point all of them were shivering, except Gray. He was still swaying slightly and his temperature hasn't lowered in the slightest.

Dia glanced at him every few seconds, clearly worried for his health. Minho kept close watch on him too, making sure he didn't keel over. Astrid just kept scanning the horizon for any sign of civilization.

For miles it seemed to just be mud and occasionally patches of grass. No sign of people or animals, just rejected land. The rain was still coming down, but fortunately, it hadn't turned into a full blown storm. Not yet anyway.

There was no way to tell what time is was since the clouds were blocking the sun, but it clearly wasn't night. It wasn't pitch black, not yet.

After what felt like an hour they came across the first sign of life. It was a town, or what was left of it anyway. There were stone and brick buildings, all seemingly abandoned. They ran inside of what seemed to be an abandoned building. There was a huge hole in the ceiling that had a puddle of water on the floor directly beneath it. They all huddled together and started planning.

"What do we do now? We escaped to nothing," Dia pondered.

"There's nothing we can do but wait until tomorrow. Hopefully it'll stop raining by then," Astrid said, fighting off the urge to shiver. "But first, we need to dry our clothes. We can wring them out at least" she said.

Minho and Dia's eyes widened before they both shifted uncomfortably. "B-But Astrid-chan, there aren't just girls here," Dia said, glancing at the ever stoic Gray.

"That's why we'll be one side of the room and they'll be on the other," Astrid explained calmly. And with that, they split up.

Minho had no problem with doing this, he was ripped after all. The problem was getting Gray to understand what he was supposed to do.

"You have to strip down," Minho told him slowly. Gray just stared at him.

Minho sighed in frustration while pressing his fingers to his temples.

"Just take off your shirt" he instructed. A blank stare was his response, again. He exasperated, throwing his hands up. "You were a stripper for God's sake, why can't you strip now?!" he whirled around, seething.

A second later he turned back around to face the boy and ended up staring at him. Gray had removed his shirt and was wringing it out. Minho stared at him for several seconds before shaking his head and wringing his own shirt out. On the other side of the room, the girls had no problems. Astrid had already taken her shirt off and was currently wringing it out. Thankfully, she'd been wearing under wear. Damaged, but at least it was something.

Dia was fortunate enough to have been wearing underwear as well, but hers was more torn. It was more a bikini than anything at this point. Astrid couldn't help but stare at her, amazed at how developed she was. Dia noticed her stare and quickly attempted to cover herself.

"W-What is it?" she asked, clearly embarrassed. Astrid suddenly grinned and went behind her. Astrid reached and put her hands on Dia's chest.

"KYAAAA," Dia cried quickly jumping away from her. "Wh-What're doing Astrid-chan?!" she squeaked, clearly flustered.

"You've been taken care of quite well, I see. You haven't shrunk at all,"Astrid observed. "T-That may be so, but you shouldn't check like that!" Dia cried. "Something wrong ladies?" A shirtless Minho asked, walking up to them along with Gray.

He opened his mouth to say something else, when he abruptly shut it and looked to the ground.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Y-you really have g-grown is size Dia," he stuttered.

Dia was puzzled at his sudden behavior until she remembered what she was wearing. She shrieked and quickly hid behind Gray who had slightly raised his eyebrows in question of her actions. When everyone finally calmed down, Astrid announced it was time for them to go to sleep. No one argued. After only a few minutes, soft snoring filled the quiet room. Everyone except Dia had fallen asleep.

Dia hugged her knees to her chest, still cold from the rain. She just couldn't sleep. She looked at Gray who was sleeping, lying on his side. After a moment, she walked over and sat down next to him. He looked more relaxed than he was when he was awake earlier. She smiled and brushed the hair out of his eyes gently. He shifted at her touch, rolling over to lie on his other side.

She eventually ended up laying down next to him, intertwining their fingers. "I love you Gray-kun," she whispered as she drifted off into oblivion.

* * *

><p>In an unknown location, the silhouette of a tower loomed over a small village and camp.<p>

Three figures moved in the silent village, sneaking toward the tower.

When they got to the tower, they spoke.

"Will this really do the job Archi-sama?" a feminine voice asked, sounding unsure. "Of course it will, it has to" a deep voice growled. "Silence you two," Archi ordered. He walked to the base of the tower and put his hands on it. His hands glowed green and after a few seconds, so did the top of the tower.

A massive ball of red and blue light appeared on the tip of it. Archi smiled as the massive ball burst, causing a huge wave of magic power to erupt from it that knocked everyone off of their feet.

That shockwave was felt all across Earthland.

* * *

><p>The town of Magnolia was taken by surprise when the shockwave reached them.<p>

A blonde haired man with a lightning shaped scar and a thick coat watched over all of the startled citizens below from his balcony.

"What was that?" he wondered aloud.


	9. The Return of Our Magic

**Hello again you all! My updates have been irregular haven't they? Sorry about that, but I have school and quizzes and projects to do. Not to mention keeping up my status on G+ (Yes I still use it). Also, I keep getting stuck on some parts of a chapter. Anyway, I'm going to say this now. I WILL PROBABLY NEVER DO A FANFIC FROM A CHARACTER'S POV. Big thanks to IcePrinceRay for reviewing!**

**P.S. NEVER DO 1 HOUR STRAIGHT OF TETRIS. I DID IT AND MY BRAIN BROKE.**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE OCs AND THE PLOT.**

* * *

><p>Astrid had managed to get the others to settle down enough for them to lie down. Minho curled up near the far corner and was snoring away. Dia was lying on her back, near Gray as always. Gray was sitting, slouching really, with his back against the wall. For some reason, he scanned the area every few seconds. She would've asked him why if she wasn't been so tired.<p>

Instead, she lied down and shut her eyes. She was asleep within seconds.

* * *

><p>Gray stayed awake way longer than the others. He had to keep guard. He wanted to protect them. Especially the one with the curled hair. His thoughts were disrupted when black spots entered his vision. He shook his head and they went away.<p>

"Gray-kun?" Dia suddenly whispered. She was looking at him with concern, wide awake for some reason. He raised his eyebrows, signaling that he heard her. "Why are you still awake? You need res,t" she said quietly as she sat up. He just shook his head.

"Can't sleep? I know the feeling, I had it earlier. But I managed to when I…" she trailed off, a slight blush rising on her cheeks. Gray just nodded, before scanning the area again. She really wanted to help him, but wasn't sure how.

A thought popped into her mind. She shook her head, blushing at the idea of doing something so embarrassing.

_C'mon Dia, you can do this. It's for him!_

"W-well, you can't sleep against that hard wall" She started slowly, staring at the ground. "T-There's not really any soft things here for you to lie down on so…"

"Youcanputyourheadonmylap," she finished quickly. He blinked at her then shrugged. Her face was on fire as put his head on her lap. After a minute, she forced herself to relax. She slowly put her hand atop his hair and began combing her fingers through it. He stiffened for a moment before relaxing slightly. She smiled down at him and continued her actions.

After a minute, his eyelids drooped and he seemed to be getting sleepy to some degree.

"Go to sleep Gray-kun, I'll take care of everything", she murmured. His eyes closed completely and seconds later, his breathing became even. Dia smiled and carefully removed his head from her lap. Guilt pierced her at the action, but she couldn't fell asleep sitting straight up. She lowered herself so that she was laying on her stomach. The hard floor was uncomfortable, but she could manage. Giving her crush a sleepy smile she whispered, "Good night, Gray-kun."

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for taking so long to update, but this chapter frustrated me so much. I wasn't sure how to end it and I'm not really sure about the ending even now. Oh well, better than nothing I guess. I have finals coming up so the update will probably take even longer because of so much work. I'd better get started on the next chapter while I still have time.<strong>

**NOTICE: I might be starting another fanfic soon. It's based on a song called 'Old Doll' from Mad Father/Ib. It might get freaky and maybe a little gore (?)**

**Also, I heard my English teacher will be reading this, so if you do; HI!**

**Reviews are always welcome ^_^**


	10. A New Day

**Chapter 11 FINALLY! I now understand the pressure of all fanfiction writers everywhere. It takes so much imagination to write a single chapter unless you have a writing high. Almost to 10k words, YAY! I'm almost 100% none of the original characters will appear and have a big role anytime soon. Before that, I have to build stuff up and get at least to 15 chapters which seems really far away. Oh well, enjoy the chapter~**

**NOTE: This chapter has dreams in it, so don't worry about being confused. When a character is dreaming, you can tell by **this font.

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the OCs and plot.**

* * *

><p><em>Everyone in the group was sleeping peacefully. All having different dreams or nightmares that made them squirm. Unfortunately, Astrid was the one haunted by nightmares.<em>

* * *

><p>Tick…..tock…..tick….tock….<p>

The giant grandfather clock slowly ticked away her time.

She sat on the obsidian floor, on her knees and covering her face with her hands.

"**Choose**" boomed the male emotionless voice from above. She didn't move for a few moments but when she did, she simply stood up.

The tears started falling again. They made her eyes burn.

She finally lowered her hands and let them drop to her sides.

She saw the others, imprisoned.

Gray was imprisoned in an ice structure that wrapped around his limbs and entangled his limp body.

Minho was floating in a big blob of what looked to be purple slim.

Dia was literally in a pit of fire. The flames surrounding her seemed to touch her yet she had no burns.

Astrid looked up at what was supposed to be the sky. Instead of blue and clouds, she saw an inferno that she guessed what some alteration of the sun was.

"**Choose"** the voice repeated. She looked at the others before turning her head to the side and seeing the giant grandfather clock. It was stuck at 11:59 and was no longer functioning. But she still heard the ticks of it.

"Why do I have to deal with this?" she whispered to no one.

She trudged over to Gray's structure and looked at him blankly. Then repeated the process for the others.

"…..I….chose…." she muttered, staring at the ground. "…A...Aya….no…Ayano" she finished.

"**As you wish"** the voice said. The flames surrounding Dia suddenly went out, creating no smoke and leaving no traces of its existence.

Minho and Gray suddenly erupted in black flames yet they didn't scream or even squirm. They just stayed still as their bodies quickly turned into ashes.

Astrid collapsed to the ground and started sobbing, going into fetal position. "Why did I have to do this….why, why, why..?"

"How did it come to this?"

* * *

><p><em>Astrid's eyes cracked open then instantly shut again. "Stupid sun" she grumbled as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.<em>

_She looked around, blinking blearily. Everyone seemed to still be asleep. She looked outside and saw the sun was well above the horizon, indicating they'd slept for quite a while._

_She slowly stood up and stretched, feeling her stiff bones pop. _

_She walked over to Gray who was peacefully asleep. She kneeled down and lightly tapped his cheek. His eyebrows furrowed and his hand balled into a fist. After a moment he seemed to relax and resume sleeping._

_Astrid heaved a sigh of relief and smiled. _

'_That's right, he's just sleeping this time….just sleeping" she thought._

_She stood back up and walked outside, shielding her eyes. _

_After she lowered her hands, she saw the stone town in its full glory._

_She'd been too tired to inspect her surroundings when she and the rest had first arrived._

_Now she could clearly see the state of this town. It was in ruins._

_Tall buildings had the top blown off and all of the windows blown out._

_What she guessed used to be homes were blackened seemingly by fire. Most of the ceilings had caved in and windows blown out. Some houses were just mountains of rubble and glass._

_There was a huge cross on a pile of wood, stone, and what appeared to be stained glass. 'Must've been a church' she thought sadly. All of the ruins had spatters of blood on them somewhere._

_She took a few steps back and looked at the building she'd just walked out of. There were no windows or doors. She noted how many cracks there were in the walls and walked back inside._

* * *

><p>'<em>They've gotten enough sleep for now. Besides, we need to keep moving' she thought as she walked over to Dia.<em>

_Luckily for Astrid, Dia was sleeping on her back. Astrid squatted down and let her hand hover over Dia chest._

_She let her hand drop onto her chest then squeezed. Dia's eyes shot open and as soon as she spotted Astrid, she squealed. Minho jumped up, half asleep but alert. _

_He spotted them and stared for several moments before covering his eyes with his hands. _

_Gray calmly sat up, rubbing his eyes. He gave a questioning grunt._

"_Gray-kun help me-" she cut off suddenly and stared at said boy. _

_Astrid, noticing her sudden silence, looked at Gray too. She went slack jawed as her grip loosened._

_The action of his rubbing his eyes made him look like a child…..a cute child._

_She felt her face heat up and she quickly scrambled off of Dia. As soon as she was free, Dia glomped Gray affectionately. "You're so cute Gray-kun," she giggled, squeezing him close. _

_Gray blinked a few times before putting his arms around her, causing everyone in the room to freeze._

"_Ayano" he muttered._

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><p><strong>Yay another chapter completed~! I worked kinda hard multitasking this with school work, but still managed to finish this. I'm thinking about another possible story idea featuring Lucy for once. It'll be like a Clannad After Story (Saddest anime series I have ever seen)Fairy Tail parody. One of the stories that hasn't been updated in a few months was updated the other day! I fist pumped when I saw it. 8XxAnimexX8 SENPAI READ MY STORY?! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!<strong>

**Reviews are welcome u_u**


	11. Odd Behavior

**TWELTH CHAPTER, YAY! I never thought I'd get this far so fast honestly. Big thanks to 8XxAnimexX8 Senpai for being a dedicated reader and reviewing! I'm starting to rethink the Clannad After Story parody thing, if I were to do it, I'd have to rewatch the same sad scene over and over again to get the details right. I don't think I can handle that many feelz ;-;. Also, I'll be adding some text in between this and the story from now on, it'll be important later on.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's.**

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><p><em>Dia gasped and released Gray, who now had his bangs covering his eyes.<em>

"_H-How do you know that n-name?" she stuttered._

_He said nothing. Her eyes widened as a memory suddenly popped into her mind._

* * *

><p><strong><em>"Hehehe, ...ryu-kun! Stay with me, until the end."<em>**

**_"That depends on the choices you make in the near future...-sama."_**

**_"Heh, that sounded pretty wise coming from someone like you."_**

**_Both laughed and looked toward the door. "Is she coming?" "Probably..." "I want to play with her again!"_**

**_Soundlessly, the door opened. The outline of a person appeared in the doorway. "Ah, she came!"_**

**_"Come sit down, we were expecting you."_**

* * *

><p><em>The memory suddenly ended and Dia came back to reality.<em>

_Gray had moved away from her and was now drawing something on the walls. There was an eerie vibe coming from him._

_Astrid and Minho looked spooked yet puzzled. "W-What was that?" Astrid nearly whispered, her eyes glued to Gray._

"_Don't know," Minho slowly replied, his eyes flitting between Dia and Gray._

_Dia stood up and slowly brushed off her skirt, still shell-shocked. Astrid walked over to where Gray was and inspected seemed to be in some sort of trance, moving his limbs stiffly._"_Gray…?" she called nervously, lightly tapping his back. He didn't respond or even give any indication that he'd heard her, he just kept drawing._

"_Gray?" she called again, firmly this time. He slowly turned his head to look at her, so slow it was briefly smiled at her then went back to drawing. She huffed and grabbed his wrist, hard._

_He froze (no pun intended) then slowly turned to her again. This time he didn't smile at her, instead he kept a blank expression._

"_Are you alright?" she asked slowly, to make sure he understood her. He stared at her for a few seconds before ripping his wrist from her grasp._

_Their eyes met as she let her hand drop back to her side. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, the tension was looked back and forth between the two, unnerved by the long lasting tension._

_Dia was seemingly in deep thought about something, zoning out for the suddenly broke eye contact and turned to stare outside. Suddenly, he started walking toward the exit._

"_Where're you going?" Astrid questioned immediately, only a few paces behind him. He turned toward her and narrowed his eyes slightly. Astrid gasped, "Your eyes, what happened to your eyes?" _

_Gray's eyes were no longer black, but now light blue and dull._

* * *

><p>In an unknown location, a lone girl sat on her knees, weeping.<p>

She was surrounded by thorns, unable to escape. She'd already tried and had gained dozens of everywhere. Her arms, her legs, underneath her clothes, even on her wings. Yes, she had wings.

They were in resting position, having no trace of their usual prayed those terrible men wouldn't come back, they certainly weren't 'd thought humans would be like they were in her memories; generous, fun to play with and humble.

She looked up through the thorns to check if the sun was still there. It night had been rough. It was cold and wet and not shook her head. Not fun at all.

She desperately wanted her red eyes friends to come back, they'd played with her. But they had to run when the scary men came. She wished she could run with them.

_Crack_

Her eyes widened.

A sound.

_Crack crunch_

Another sound. It was closer this time. She could vaguely guess they were footsteps. 'Which means…!'

They crashed through the bushes.

Too late.

"Well, well, well," the large man said with a grin, looking down at her."Looks like our little Fairy-chan has tried to escape again~" The girl next to him sang.

"But there's no reason to escape anymore~". She noticed the man was holding the end of a rope which he quickly yanked forward. A squeal came from the other side of the rope before another girl crashed through the bushes, being forcefully pulled. The rope bound her wrists, which prevented her from balancing properly.

Their eyes widened at the sight of each other's beaten states.

"Arisu…!"

"Yumichi…!"

The thorn cage opened, only for the man to kick her friend inside."W-What are you doing here?!" Yumichi cried, in joy yet in anger."I didn't come of my own free will ya know" Arisu grumbled, fumbling with the rope. Yumichi immediately started helping her and together they managed to undo the knot binding her 's expression darkened suddenly. "They're hunting," she said in a low voice.

"What?"

"They're hunting fairies, Yumichi. They're hunting us for that _project_ of theirs"

Yumichi felt her eyes burn at that statement.'How could humans be so cruel? Aren't we supposed to be praised? This isn't like what _she_ said at all.' Arisu nudged her, making her friend to face her.

"Don't worry," she said with a grin. "We'll definitely get out of this."

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><p><strong>Letting you know now, whenever I switch POVs like I did in this chapter, it's VERY important to pay attention to the new characters. This took me quite a while to type but luckily I had a good vibe and managed to finish it today. I've decided to make a deadline for myself. NEW CHAPTER EVERY 2-5 DAYS. I know it might seem like a long time but it's hard to make a chapter with all this school work. Luckily, I have no school for the rest of the week so I might get another chapter out by the end of the week. I noticed how my story had exactly 777 views. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! (REFERENCE)<strong>


	12. Back To The Base

**Chapter 13 already? Cool, Unlucky number though. I'll probably never get beta on any of my chapters which is fine because I don't make many grammar mistakes now anyway. The backstories of the OCs are going to come slowly, it'll take some brainpower to piece it together though. I have flashbacks throughout the story so those'll help a lot. FUN FACT: Astrid's name came from my Google + account username.**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT OCs AND PLOT!**

* * *

><p><em>Astrid took a step back in shock.<em>

_Gray's eyes were…..blue? This was definitely not normal, something was definitely not right. She heard Minho gasp behind her. She shook off her shock and walked up to Gray who had resumed walking._

_She didn't stop him this time, she just followed. She heard_

_footsteps behind her and within seconds, Dia was by her side._"_I'm concerned for him too," she said seriously. Astrid smiled and put her hand on Dia's shoulder._

"_I'm sure he'll appreciate it." she said confidently. Dia smiled and thanked her in return._

"_Hey! Wait for me!" Minho called from behind, jogging to catch up with them. They followed Gray outside, down a few paths, and to the border of the 'town'._

"_Hey," Minho started, stopping in his tracks. "Should we really leave the town?" he asked, glancing at Gray who was still going strong._

"_We can't afford to lose track of him and it's too dangerous to have someone alone, so we have no choice but to leave." Astrid explained, still watching Gray closely._

_Suddenly, he stopped and turned to face them. They stopped as well, although not as fast as him. His dull blue eyes suddenly gained life and he smiled. "__**You're still a follower as always**__," he said with uncharacteristic cheerfulness. _

_They all looked at him with varying degrees of confusion. "What're you talking about?" Minho asked with obvious confusion. "__**My friend, you still have to keep your promise. Even if it uses someone else,**_" _Gray said. Dia studied him carefully and noticed the vacant look in his eyes. And he was admitting a drastically different feel than usual. _

"_Who are you?" She asked suddenly. Gray looked to her, his empty eyes staring into her soul. Astrid looked between the two, "What do you mean? It's….." She trailed off as she too noticed his vacant gaze. "__**That's for you to know, and them to find out. Right, Aya?**_" _He finished with a light chuckle. _

_At the name 'Aya', Dia was noticeably shaken. Her eyes widened and she paled a little. "Dia?" Minho called in concern. She flinched a little and waved to show she was alright. Both he and Astrid were looking at Dia now, making her squirm a bit. "Who's Aya?" Astrid asked. At that moment, they all heard a thump and turned to see Gray on the ground._

_They immediately circled around him. To their surprise, he seemed to be unconscious. "Gray?" Astrid called while shaking him. He was completely unresponsive, but breathing. Dia sighed in relief and let herself relax. "Thank goodness," she said._"_Huh, it's almost like he was sleepwalking…" Astrid muttered suspiciously. _"_In any case, we should take him back to the building." Minho said with a and Dia nodded. On that note, Minho picked Gray up and hoisted him on his back .He staggered from Gray's deadweight but the boy wasn't as heavy as he looked._

_Astrid couldn't resist smiling slyly at the action. _"_What are you grinning at?" Minho grumbled_"_Nothing." She hummed, turning and walking back toward their base. Minho and Dia followed silently._"_I hope he's alright now." Dia said quietly, glancing at Gray. "He'd better be, I can't handle his weight all the time." Minho muttered._

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><p><em>As soon as they entered their base, Minho set Gray down on the ground happily.<em>"_Thank God that's over." Minho said, cracking his back._"_He couldn't have been that heavy," Dia muttered, almost as if she was offended._"_He's not as heavy as he looks but he's not exactly light as a feather," Minho retorted._

"_Is there a problem?" Astrid asked, looking between the two. "Nope," Both said._

"_Good. I've decided that we should look around, but someone should stay with Gray just in case he wanders off again," Astrid said confidently._"_Who died and made you queen?" Minho said, rolling his eyes._"_Obviously, I'm the leader of our team, so naturally, I'm the one to take charge," Astrid scoffed, flipping her hair. "Yeah right," Minho snorted._

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Astrid said with a glare. "Stop acting like a know it all," Minho said. "Well maybe I act that way because I do know it all. I already know about the fifth-"_

"_The fifth?" _

_A look of confusion crossed Astrid's face. "Wait, what?" She said, puzzled by her previous statement. "Fifth? Like a fifth person?" Minho inquired. "N-No, I mean...It could've been-"_"_I'm sure it's just us four, I'm pretty sure I'd remember another person. Anyway, what was that plan of yours again Astrid-chan?" Dia said, clearly trying to change the subject_

_._"_Dia, is something wrong?" Astrid questioned. Dia's eyes widened, "Eh? Of course not! I'm fine." "Why're you acting so jumpy? It's kinda suspicious," Minho inquired. "If you have something to say, you can say it. We're not gonna judge you, although now isn't really the time for secrets," Astrid urged. _

"_There's nothing wrong! Just forget about it okay?!" Dia snapped uncharacteristically. Astrid raised a brow and Minho blinked owlishly in response to her outburst. "Okay, something is definitely wrong," Astrid said, stepping closer to Dia only for her to move back. _

"_That's…ridiculous! I would never keep secrets from my friends!" She said hurriedly, taking a step back for every step Astrid took forward. She refused to meet anyone's eyes._

"_Come to think of it, you reacted pretty strangely to the name 'Aya'." Astrid pondered._"_Th-That's because! Because..." Dia seemed to run out of excuses._

"_Dia, what is it that's so bad that you have to hide it from us?" Astrid asked, edging closer to her._"_I don't know anything." Dia whispered harshly. "It's obvious you do know, what is it? Did...did something happen, in the prison? I thought you were treated better than Minho and I," Astrid pried._

_Dia's eyes widened, "Th-That's not it!" she cried. She went to take another step back only to realize she was trapped against a wall. Astrid clapped a hand on her shoulder, "What are you hiding?". Dia started trembling and whispered something inaudible. Astrid was about to lean in closer when Dia suddenly threw her arms around her._

_Astrid stumbled backwards in surprise. "Please, please forgive me," Dia whispered brokenly._

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><p><strong>Kinda sorry for the fast pacing, but my brain overloaded with ideas and I ended up cramming them into one chapter .Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! As usual, no beta or checks for errors. Anyone have any suggestions for a team name? It might come in handy later. Reviews are welcome as always!<strong>


	13. Revelations

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's.**

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><p>Dia kept her eyes on the ground. Minho and Astrid kept their eyes on her. There was an awkward silence that everyone secretly acknowledged and hated. Astrid coughed. "So," Minho began. "What was all that about?"<p>

Dia sniffled once, but remained silent. She glanced up only to see Astrid staring intensely at her. After a few more moments of silence and intense staring, Dia spoke up. "...You...promise we'll still be friends right? Even after I tell you?" She asked barely above a whisper. "Promise," her friends agreed.

She felt the faint urge to smile, but extinguished it in favor of a serious expression. "I...I'm not who you might think I am," She admitted somberly. They merely raised a brow. "I...was never really your friend, the Dia-chan you always went around with. She's...a fake.

I've been lying to you all the whole time, ever since we were taken. Yes, I was treated differently, but so was Gray-kun, but for different reasons. I'm not sure why Roseia treated him so highly, but I know why she treated me like she did."

"So? You're pretty cute, it'd be a waste to put you in a gritty environment like ours," Astrid joked. Dia's eyes widened slightly and she blushed for a moment. "T-That's not what I meant! This is serious! I've been lying to you for a long time, we were never real friends. I'm just on a mission," She cried.

"A mission?" Minho inquired. "Yes, the only reason I joined your group was for Gray-kun," Dia said. "For Gray? Just for him? Hehehe, I bet your love made you stay~" Astrid teased lightly with a hint of hurt laced in. Dia's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Haha, just joking~" Astrid said with uncharacteristic playfulness.

"I scouted him, for my use. My real name is Ayano Sasaki, not Dia. Before we were taken, I was placed somewhere else. Given to special people, to a former comrade…" She trailed off in thought.

"Former comrade?" Minho echoed. He and Astrid exchanged confused glances. "Yes, she was also a close friend of ours, until a certain event…" Ayano continued bitterly."And it seems I'm the only one capable of remembering her."

Astrid seemed to be deep in thought and Minho had an expression of disbelief. "What…what was her name?" He asked quietly. "Nagisa, Nagisa Kaname," Ayano replied.

"Why just you? Are we…not good enough?" Minho muttered, looking at the ground. "That's not the case. I remember it because I went through the loop. The loop of time experiment," Ayano said. "Loop of…" Astrid muttered before gasping and raising her hands slightly, palms up. She whispered something incoherent and a purple light emitted from her hands. Seconds later, Amunet was in her grasp.

"Loop of time," She whispered. The book glowed briefly then nothing. Astrid frowned, "Loop of time," she repeated. Still nothing. Ayano's eyes brows furrowed as she frowned as well. "Your Loop of Time...it doesn't exist," Astrid muttered. Ayano shook her head fiercely, "I know what I'm talking about," She assured. "No, the Amunet knows of pretty much all supernatural things that have occurred or exist, and there's nothing about a Loop of Time. Nien."

"Then, your book must've not documented it yet. Besides, the Creators are much more advanced than an old book," Ayano countered. "Creators?" Minho echoed. "That's right, they're the ones that put me through that experiment. They also gave me my special abilities,"

Astrid was about to comment when a shiver shot up her spine. From their sudden changes in posture, Ayano and Minho had felt it too. They all turned toward Gray who was sitting up, but slouched. Tiny ice particles and fog was coming from his hands which were on the ground, palms down. His head was tilted down so that his eyes were hidden behind his hair.

"Gray…" Astrid started in a warning tone. He didn't respond. "Gray-kun…" Ayano said softly. Still no stood and walked over to him, keeping a close eye on the ice particles surrounding him."How long have you been awake?" She asked cautiously. Silence.

She sat down right in front of him and slowly extended her hand towards him. She felt the sting of frostbite from the ice magic but shrugged it off. "Be careful," Minho warned from behind her."Gray-kun, you're magic…it's getting out of control." She whispered, putting her fingertips to his cheek. After a few seconds, the particles dissipated and the temperature returned to normal.

"That's it Gray-kun…calm," Ayano murmured. Suddenly, he lurched forward, nearly faceplanting when Ayano caught him by the shoulders and pulled him into her chest. "That's it...it's alright…" She murmured soothingly. "You…" he muttered as he pulled away.

"Have you recovered?" She asked. "Recovered…?" He muttered, shaking his head slightly. " Do you remember anything?" She questioned. There was a moment of silence before he responded. "...It...depends on what to remember…" he muttered. Another moment of silence. "So you remember everything? I didn't think it would come to you all at once," She said quietly.

"What're you two talking about?" Minho asked, sliding in next to Gray. "Him other life," she said, glancing at him. "Other life?" He echoed, clearly puzzled. "Yes, Gray-kun went through something similar to what I experienced." "What do you mean?" Minho questioned. "She means that Gray went through a time loop too, right?" Astrid said, walking over to them.

Ayano shook her head and turned to them, "He didn't go through a time loop, he went through a different life. Roseia, when she took him captive, managed to break his mental barriers. This caused every memory that might've faded or been erased completely to return full force. Since he's had great trauma in the past, a lot of bad memories came back too. This greatly deteriorated his mental health causing his mindscape to corrupt, Astrid-chan and Roseia being in there didn't help either. As a result, he lived through a different life with memories of the life he experienced before .He didn't remember anything at first because his memories were blocked, a result of his mind trying to patch itself up."

Both Astrid and Minho gaped at her. "H-How could you have POSSIBLY know all of that?!" Minho exclaimed in disbelief.

Ayano smiled at them.

"I told you, I'm not the girl you used to know."

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><p><strong>WHEW, SO LENGTHY. This took a few days, but it was worth it. Were you surprised at Ayano and Dia's real identities? It took quite some imagination to come up with that. Now we also know that Amunet actually works, but only for Astrid. Did anyone else read the newest chapter of Fairy Tail? I FREAKED OUT BUT FANGIRLED SO HARD, DEMON SLAYER GRAY FTW! I was slightly confused at Natsu's sudden dragon force, but whatever~<strong>

**I failed at 50k words, but I never expected to make it in the first place. I made my own goal of 12k though, so that's good enough. No grammar check as usual!**

**Reviews are welcome as always ^u^**


	14. Seishin

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's.**

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><p><em>"Y-You…" Minho muttered, shocked but trying not to show it. Keyword trying.<em>

_"I know it seems like a lot to absorb all at once, but you'll get used to it eventually." Ayano said with a smile. She noticed Astrid was silent and looking at her with an unreadable expression. "You'll get used to it eventually," She repeated._

_Ayano smiled sadly at her before refocusing on Gray, who was spacing out. "Gray, I know it was intense, but I need your help right now." Minho was further shocked at the lack of her usual honorific for him. __**She must be serious.**_

_Gray was looking at the ground, his expression an odd mix between conflicted and blank. At the sound of his name, he looked up at her. "That is…" he trailed off. Ayano looked at him in pity. "Gray…." She said, leaning a little closer to him. "It seems I have no choice, I need to snap you out of this," she said with a sigh._

_She looked at her hands and curled them into fists, closing her eyes. A moment later, a pink and white glow radiated from her left fist. The light faded from Ayano's fist and she opened it. There was something glowing blue on her palm, a sphere…? The glow faded after several seconds, revealing the object._

_It was a blue gem in the shape of a sphere. It was inside some kind of egg shaped holder that seemed to be made of silver. The holder fully covered the bottom half of the sphere. A few thin strips of silver travelled up to the top tip and met at the center. The little object no bigger than a ping pong ball._

_Minho and Astrid looked at it in surprise. __**What's with the energy coming from it though?**_ _Astrid extended her hand forward, offering the object to Gray. "Take this. It should ease the pain." She said._

_"What is it?" Minho asked, eyes burning holes into the side of her head. She paused._

_"It's something called a Seishin, I named it myself." She said, putting on the ground near Gray's blinked down at it and seemed to inch his fingers towards it._

_"It will fill what is gone," She said quietly. "What do you mean?" Astrid asked. "I created it with my powers, it's a complex process. It was created with the intention to 'complete' a person. Everyone has a trait they're missing, seishin is supposed to fill that void to complete the personality at all costs, along with a boost in power. People who are given seishin are bound to a contract to protect the distributor in exchange for these things. Seishin is also a container for the darkness of the thing they missed and corruption that may occur."_

_She paused. "Gray, do you wish to complete the contract?"_

_He stared at her for several seconds before looking at the seishin. "…Fill what is missing…huh…" he murmured, sliding his hand closer to it. "Wait!" Astrid blurted, snatching his wrist. He looked her, tilting his head to the side slightly.__"Can something destroy the seishin?" she asked seriously. She was staring into Ayano's eyes, and she held her gaze for a moment before looking away. "Technically, the holder can," She said._

_Astrid narrowed her eyes at her and started to pull Gray away. He didn't resist, instead just kept staring at the seishin.__"What do you mean?" Astrid asked. Ayano stood at her full height which was about the same as Astrid's._

_"Every time the holder experiences something that's not a symptom of their renewed trait, the seishin's color is tainted. There are stages to the darkening. Stage one is just a slight change, nothing particularly noticeable. Stage two is when the tainting starts to affect their powers, making them 'glitch'. Stage three is when the holder starts feeling the effects on their personalities, when the trait is starting to be corrupted. Stage four is when the holder feels the emotions that are the opposite of what they're supposed to feel. Grief, hate, envy, sorrow, depression. Negative emotions. Stage four, the holder has lost it and they can't use their powers correctly anymore. They are no longer mentally stable and then…" She trailed off._

_"And then?" Astrid pried, keeping a firm hold on Gray's wrist. "I'm not sure," Ayano said with a shrug. "What do you mean you don't know?!" Astrid cried, a tick mark appearing on her head._

_"It's simply that. I don't know what happens after that. This is my first time making a contract, all I've said is what's supposed to happen," She said casually. "I'm sorry, but you can't seriously expect me to let you make a contract with him," Astrid said with an 'are-you-serious?' face._

_"I'm sorry too, but it's not your decision to make," Ayano said seriously, taking a step towards her. Astrid took a step back and yanked Gray to his feet, but not before he grabbed the seishin. He stumbled before looking at Ayano then her, somewhat baffled. The two girls were having a stare-down._

"_Astrid-chan...you said we'd still be friends. Friends do favors for friends don't they?" Ayano said. "That's right, I'd gladly do a favor for Dia, but not you. I do believe we are still friends, even after what you told me, but with you acting like this…" Astrid trailed off._

_Gray looked between his two friends. "You two...are no longer friends," He commented quietly. Both girls looked down at him in confusion. "There is no longer a nice air around you, it's cold now. I can feel it," he said. "Cold…?" Astrid muttered. "... I want to take your deal," He said, completely ignoring Astrid's comment. _

_Astrid turned to him completely. "Are you serious? That kind of deal is-!" She cried. "Fine," He recoiled slightly. "Even so…doing something like that is…" She muttered. "Strategist," he said, turning to look her in the eyes. "That's what I was called. Her deal is…fine."_

_"Gray…" She said, slightly upset. Ayano smiled slightly. "So, is that a yes…?"_

_He turned away from Astrid and looked Ayano in the eyes, his gaze suddenly calculating. "I accept your contract," He said. She grinned as the seishin in his hand started glowing different colors. White, violet, and blue. Blinding light started emitting from the seishin._

_As the holder of the contract between beings, Seishin_

_I bestow thee a new existence_

_A will of ice led by darkness shall now be given new life_

_Let the darkness be erased to give birth to a new will_

_A will to protect my very being and this world with your life_

_With this name, our fates are bound together_

_You shall heed my call,_

_Senryu!_

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><p>AN

**Sorry for the late update, this took longer than I thought to come up with. I know the plot seems all over the place right now, along with Ayano's character, but please bear with it! To be honest, I have no idea where this is going. All I can do is make sure whatever my brain comes up with makes sense. One of the reviewers said Gray was kinda useless (or something like that) so, BAM! Importance. Next chapter, we'll have more development hopefully. I hope I can keep it together long enough to type all of that.**

**Until next chapter~**


	15. Prologue:END

**We get closer and closer to chapter 20 with each chapter. Yay~! But mid-terms are getting closer and closer too. T^T Well, this isn't the place to vent about my problems, that's Google+. On a side note, DID YOU GUYS READ FAIRY TAIL CHAPTER 412, IT WAS AAAAAAAAAAWESOME! It's do or die time for all of the people who made fanfics about Natsu being END, can't wait ^^.On to the chapter~**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT AND OCS**

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><p>As the holder of the contract between beings, Seishin<p>

I bestow thee a new existence

A will of ice fueled by darkness shall now be given new life

Let the darkness be erased to give birth to a new will

A will to protect my very being and this world with your life

With this name, our fates are bound together

You shall heed my call,

Senryu!

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><p><em>With these words, the room was filled with blinding white light. Along with the light came a sudden wave of a few seconds, the light faded. Astrid, who'd been shielding her eyes, slowly lowered her hands.<em>

_Everything was bright so she couldn't see clearly. A headache was coming on. She closed her eyes again, waited a couple of seconds, then opened them vision wasn't exactly normal but it was good enough to see. Her eyes widened at the scene before her._

_The walls, especially the roof, were heavily damaged and looked ready to collapse at any second. The ground had a small crater in it, and some light was still coming from there. _

_She was about to go down there when she realized something .She was sitting on the ground, against a wall. Pain shot through her head again. Wincing, she slowly raised her hand to the back of her head._ _**No blood, thank God.**_

_She cautiously stood up, taking her time. She walked to the crater, ignoring the blurriness in her vision. When she reached it, she bent over and nearly gasped at what was at the bottom of it._

_It was Gray. He was standing, no_, floating _in front of the seishin that was now glowing white. He was staring at it but she could tell he wasn't seeing 'd just barely taken a few steps towards him when he turned to face her. She froze. His eyes were different again, onyx this time. He wore a serious expression, but after a few seconds, it softened tremendously. He even smiled slightly._

_She was speechless for a few seconds before asking "Are you okay?" He nodded before returning his attention to the seishin. It flared then stopped glowing. It started to fall when it suddenly disappeared. No poof or anything, just gone._

_She blinked then walked to him. Tapping him, she asked again "Are you _sure _you're okay?" Once again, he nodded. "What exactly happened? And-" Her eyes swept around the room. "Where's Ayano?"_

_He stared at her for a long moment before pointing upwards. Her eyes followed the direction of his finger and saw it. Whatever it was pointing at a writhing black mass that had appeared on the ceiling. It bubbled and sloshed. It sent shivers up her spine. "Wh-what _is that?!_" She cried in disgust. "Ayano unconsciously teleported away from the explosion of power beckoned it here," He said then outstretched his arm in front of him._

_The seishin appeared again, flashing blue before it encased itself in white, blue and violet. The colors swirled into a sphere around Gray. She couldn't see any more than flashing colors for a few seconds. When the colors cleared, Gray was wearing a slightly different outfit. _

His previous shirt had turned into a long white coat that went mid-thigh. It had a blue tint. His baggy pants had changed into dark pants tucked inside laced boots.

_Astrid stared at him with wide eyes. He looked up at the writhing mass before summoning a weapon, a rapier. She gave him a puzzled look before looking back at the black mass. "What are you planning?"_

_A groan resounded from their left, near the wall. "Will...you...guys...shut up already…" came Minho's slurred voice. He was slumped against a nearby wall. He slowly straightened and casually brushed himself off and walked over to them. "Are you alright?" Astrid asked, searching his body for serious injuries. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said._

_Gray looked at him before letting his rapier vanish into thin air. "…Can you take care of it?" he asked, gesturing to the black mass. Minho looked at it and nearly shrieked. "W-What in the-! What is THAT?!" He cried in his _manliest _voice. "Take care of it," Gray ordered._

"_What is it?" Minho asked again. "Take care of it," Gray repeated. "Why do you want _ME _to do it?! You're the one all dressed up for it!" Minho fumed. Gray stared at him for a moment, and Minho stared back. Without warning, Gray's seishin materialized and began shining brightly again. _

_Astrid was about to question Gray about it when it exploded, taking the rest of the building with it._

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><p>AN

**Sorry once again for the late update and the chapter's shorter than normal length. I can't even set a period of time for you guys to wait for a new chapter anymore. I don't know what happened to the plot, it's probably on drugs. I don't know what to call the monsters, any ideas? I keep having the randomest ideas for things to happen, I might have a lot of OCs by the time this is over. I saw Mockingjay today, it was good. I loved the scene when Peeta did THAT thing to Katniss (Trying to stay spoiler free).I also say D-Day…my mother dragged me to it so it wasn't all that pleasant. Warning you now, it has a lot of nudity. Insurgent is going to premiere on March 20th I think. I still can't wait for chapter 413 of Fairy Tail, SO EXCITED FOR E.N.D! NOTE: This story will now have arcs of varying lengths ^^**


	16. Encounter

**CHAPTER 413 WAS DELAYED WHAAAAAT?! Anger! REVIEW REPLY TIME!**

**Guest: Yes I did update on the 16****th** **but then I deleted the chapter only to add it again on the 17****th** **.**

**Also, this is where things get interesting. As you will notice, the font changed so that the slanted are the thoughts and regular are what's happening. You know what this means right? No? It means we're in current time in the storyline and all of the previous chapters (except prologue) were in the past. Warning, this chapter is going to be EXTREMELY confusing but I'll explain later. I'm glad to announce this story might be coming to an end in a few months (or weeks). This is only because I wanted to use elements from my other story in the sequel because using them now would be too confusing. **

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT THE PLOT AND OCs**

**Warning: Possibly disturbing scene. Rated T.**

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><p>"Onee-chan!" A high pitched voice cried. She turned toward the voice only to see nothing. "Onee-chan..." the voice called again, coming from a different direction. She whirled around, nearly getting whiplash. This time she saw a little girl standing there.<p>

The girl was wearing a white sun dress and a low tipped white gardening hat, no shoes. She had glossy white hair which she guessed went to her hips, she couldn't tell since the girl's hair and clothes were blowing in a breeze she couldn't feel.

"Who...are you?" she asked.

The little girl smiled, "My name is Ito. I am a Seishin,"

_Seishin?! _

"_**It's something called a seishin, I named it myself." **_

Ito finally lifted her hat so that she could see her face. Her pupils were black but her irises were purple.

"Astrid…do you want to make a contract?" she asked seriously. Astrid blinked before shaking her head violently. "Why not? Senryu has made a contract and he is among the living. The reward is quite generous, and I have been looking for someone like you,"

Astrid shook her head again, closing her eyes. "**He is among the living." **Her eyes flew open. "Then, he's alright?!" she exclaimed. Ito shook her head. "I said he was among the living, I did not say he was well." Astrid's expression quickly turned to one of horror.

"I…I've got to get out of here!" she cried. "_You will not leave!"_ Ito snapped. Astrid stared at her in surprise at the sudden change of tone. Ito cleared her throat before speaking again, calmer this time. "You will not leave…not until a contract is made."

"I will not make a contract." Astrid said with a glare. Ito returned the glare with just as much, if not more coldness. "You have no choice," She said, chuckling darkly. "I'm pretty sure I can defy a child," Astrid said with a scoff."Tch, I thought this would happen. Looks like I'll have to make you…" Ito muttered, taking off her hat. She put her hat on the ground, waited a few seconds before picking it up. There was something on the ground where her hat was a moment ago. No, it wasn't a something. It was a _person._

"O-Onee-chan…" the person whispered. "Y-Yui?!" Astrid cried in shock and horror. She was beaten and bruised , and it looked like she'd been cut and whipped. Handcuffs bound her wrists and rope bound her ankles."What did you do to her?!" Astrid roared, rushing over to them. Suddenly, she was blown back by an invisible force. _A force field?_

Ito smirked before picking Yui up by her neck. "Let's make a contract," she said sweetly. "O-Onee-chan...Don't…" Yui rasped, attempting to struggle. Ito tightened her grip on Yui's neck, making the girl go still. "Yui!" Astrid cried, pounding her fist on the barrier.

"Now is the time to choose…power or your precious _imouto_?" Ito said, releasing her grip on Yui. Impossibly, Yui went levitated higher into the air, dangerously high. _If she were to fall now…_

"F-Fine…" Astrid whispered, nails digging into her palms. Ito smiled "Good girl." She said. Suddenly Yui started yelling, "Don't accept onee-chan! That girl, she's tricking you!"

Ito snapped her head upwards to glare at the girl. "And to think I was going to spare your life…" she muttered. She lifted her arm up then brought it down quickly. Yui plummeted to the ground.

"_YUI!"_

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><p>Ayano opened her eyes before blinking blearily. She looked around numbly for a few moments before realizing where she was. A laboratory. Glass tanks filled with murky water lined the metal walls. There were pure white tables splattered with a black substance randomly placed in the room. <em>What is this place?<em>

Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she sat up. At least, she tried to. Slowly, she realized she was tied down to a metal , someone entered the room. A woman with long black hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a brown shirt with a lab coat on top and a knee length blue skirt. _What is she doing here…? _

The woman smiled and started walking toward her, a long machete suddenly in her hand. "N-No, stay away!" Ayano cried, an overwhelming sense of fear taking over. She started struggling like a wild animal, yanking violently on the restraints, screaming at the woman to stay away. _Why does this woman scare me so much? I'm sure I've never seen her before…_

As the woman crept closer, Ayano started to feel her restraints loosen. She was about to start the final stretch when something grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down, hard. "...Your fault…" a voice from behind muttered.

Her eyes widened at the strangely familiar voice. "Don't you remember Aya-chan? The person from _that time_," The woman said. She was standing directly in front of Ayano now. The hands that held her shoulders now moved to her throat. "If you had just died at _that time_, _that person_ would still be by my side," the voice from behind whispered harshly.

Ayano started shaking in fear and tears sprung to her eyes. "What are you talking about?! I don't...I don't know any of you! Leave me alone!" She cried. _Why am I crying? I don't remember...what time? What person? I don't remember, I don't know! _

"Are those tears of remorse? Of regret? Shed more tears to compensate for the sins you have committed," the voice from behind said. The woman bent down and grabbed her chin, "We're so grateful for your cooperation! The Creators will be sure to reward you handsomely!" She laughed cheerfully. _Creators? That's right I'm…_

A shadow leaned forward from behind until it was right above her. Her eyes widened as empty black eyes stared into hers. "You...you are...?!"

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><p>Astrid sat panting heavily, cradling her sister in her arms. Ito was laughing at her. She ignored it.<p>

"Hey…Hey Yui, are you…alright?" she asked the small girl. "Y-Yeah…but, one-chan…you, you didn't have to…do that for me." Yui whispered.

"This is great, Astrid-chan signed the contract~!" Ito sang. Astrid glared at her. "I didn't sign anything." She objected."Ohoho, I'm afraid you don't understand Astrid-_chan_~" Ito said, practically skipping over to the two. "Once you make a decision, there's no objections~!"

"I…I just saved my little sister! Anyone would've chosen that!" Astrid yelled. "Yes, yes but _you_ didn't save her," Ito said with a wide grin.

"What are you talking about?! I got past that barrier and caught her myself!" Astrid exclaimed. "And how were you suddenly able to get past the barrier? It's simply because of your wish." Ito explained. "My…wish…?" Astrid muttered in confusion. "Yes, the wish that you made when she fell… 'I've got to save her!' or rather 'I wish to save her!' Your wish, that I granted, saved her." Ito said. "That-That's no wish! You're just making excuses!" Astrid said angrily.

"Ah~But I'm afraid it's too late for regret Astrid-chan. Your wish revealed the trait you desire, therefore, I will forge a contract to grant that desire," Ito said, while forming a fist with one hand. After a few seconds, she opened her hand revealing a…seishin? It was identical to Gray's only this one was indigo, red, and black. Astrid's eyes widened. "No…get that thing away from me!"

Ito suddenly spread her arms wide and started chanting.

As the holder of the contract between beings

I bestow thee a new existence

A warrior shall now be given new life

Let the darkness be erased to give birth to a new will

A will to protect the laws of the Creators and your world with your life

Your ability shall be decided by your void

With this name, our fates are bound together

Alice!

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><p><strong>Didn't I tell you it'd be confusing? First Astrid has a little sister then Ayano is kinda tormented? Well, to sum it up: Astrid is now bound by a contract (like Gray) and her powers are unknown…for now…I can't tell you what all of this is about, not now, but I'll explain later, I promise! At least I would if I had any idea what was going on…<strong>

**Until I can figure out what I just typed!**


	17. The Fire

**I read chapter 413…so disappointed…at least Zeref showed up. The title was misleading…AS ALWAYS! Anyway, this is where the next part of the plot comes in. This is the present, actually, I was originally going to start the story with this but I changed my mind at the last second. On to the story I guess.**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT PLOT AND OCS**

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><p>The first thing Astrid felt upon waking was pain. Burning, searing, white hot pain. Fire…? <em>Oh…that's right…the bomb and…that monster…<em>

She slowly pried her eyes open only to be met with more pain to her eyes. It burned so much. It must be from the smoke. Groaning, she managed to push herself off of the ground. This time, when she opened her eyes, she quickly covered them with one hand.

She took in her surroundings from the spaces in between her fingers. As she expected, she was surrounded by flames. She realized she couldn't hear very well as she barely heard the crackling of the flames.

Someone was in front of her, a guy. His back was to her so she couldn't see the face. "Are you…okay?" a faraway voice asked. _Is he…talking to me…?_ "Hey," the voice called again. The man turned to face her. It was Gray. "Are you okay Astrid?" he asked again.

"Y-Yes," Astrid rasped, throat burning from inhaling the smoke. He kneeled down in front of her and smiled slightly. She was about to return the gesture when she noticed his arms. They were horribly burned from the elbows down.

"Y-Your arms…" Astrid whispered, brushing the burns lightly with her fingertips. He winced but his smile remained. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine." He said with weak cheerfulness. "Y-You're not f-fine, you need h-help." She rasped before pausing to cough.

Gray suddenly shook his head quickly, in the same matter one would fight off drowsiness. "I'm fine." He repeated, mostly to himself. Astrid shook her head this time. "Where's Minho?" She whispered, looking around again. Gray shrugged.

"When the building exploded, I managed to throw you two out of there but I only know the general direction of where he went." Gray said. "I'll go look for him, you should rest." Astrid said sternly.

Gray shook his head quickly again. "This isn't exactly the best place for a powernap," he said, standing. Astrid shakily got to her feet as well. "This isn't exactly the best time for sarcasm." She said, with a small amount of sass laced in her voice.

Astrid got no more than three steps ahead before she was nearly burned by the wall of fire. "Don't tell me you forgot already?" Gray teased, walking up next to her. "Of course not," She said with a scowl.

"Hey lovebirds! Wanna stop flirting and help?!" a familiar voice yelled. They looked around until they located the source of the voice. Astrid gasped, Gray's eyes widened. _At least we found him…_

Minho was alive…and trapped underneath a pile of rubble. Or rather, he was trapped from the waist down. "Your legs…!" Astrid gasped, horrified. "A little help…?" Minho said irritably.

Gray suddenly looked conflicted. "What is it? Have you thought of something?" Astrid asked. "Y-Yeah but…"he said, trailing off. "Anything'll work if you can .OFF!" Minho fumed through clinched teeth.

Gray nodded before running through the flames. Both Astrid and Minho gaped at him. Impossibly, no part of him seemed to catch fire, not even his clothes. As soon as he reached Minho, he started dragging the rubble off of him with his bare hands. "I-Idiot! You could've killed yourself!" Minho cried. "I could've but I'm not dead," Gray said nonchalantly. "Not yet anyway."

After a few minutes, all the rubble had been moved and Minho's legs were free. Surprisingly, they weren't very damaged except for a couple of bruises and scrapes. He slowly stood, wincing. "Can you walk?" Gray inquired. "Yeah, yeah," Minho said. "Good, stay close to me." Gray said, grabbing Minho's sleeve and starting to run through the flames once again.

"Wait, where'd Astrid go?" Minho wondered. Said girl had disappeared. "Maybe she found a path outside of the flames…?" Gray offered with a shrug. He starting walking when Minho grabbed his shoulder. "That...that thing gave you your personality back didn't it?" Minho asked seriously. Gray half turned to him, "I guess you could say that."

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><p>After running for a minute or two, they finally got out of the burning area. Just to be safe, they put a lot of distance in between themselves and the flames. Once they got far enough, they could see the cloud of ash that was stretching from the site to the plain they'd crossed days before. But there was still no sign of Astrid.<p>

"Jeez, where'd that idiot go?" Minho huffed, plopping down on the ground. "Tired?" Gray inquired, still scanning the area for Astrid. "Well my legs were kind of hit by a bunch of rubble so…" Minho said. Suddenly, Gray shushed him, staring at something in the a few moments of silence, he heard something. It was faint but recognizable. It sounded like someone was crying. _Could it be…? No. No way…_

Without warning, Gray sprinted off toward the source of the noise. Minho decided to wait behind, not feeling up to more running just take for him to get to the source of the noise. As he thought, the sound of soft sobbing was coming from a person…_Astrid…_

She was sitting on the ground, knees pulled up to her chest. "Astrid…?" He called quietly, confused and concerned. She was trembling and didn't seem to notice him. Kneeling, he reached out to her and had just barely brushed her arm when she suddenly threw her arms around his abdomen.

"Waaaah!"She wailed uncharacteristically. "A-Astrid?!" he squeaked. "G-Garry-saaaan! It's scary! Make it go awaaaay!" She wailed. He could only stare down at her in surprise. She continued wailing and didn't budge, refusing to let go of his waist. _She must be hallucinating from oxygen deprivation…_

Eventually he gave up on trying to get her to snap out of it and just stroked her hair comfortingly. "G-Garry-san," She sniffled. "…."

_This Garry must be important…_

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><p><strong>YAY FAST UPDATE!<strong> **That's because I had a spike of inspiration for this chapter. You just should disregard the previous chapter for a little while, it'll be important later. I forgot to mention, I recently became a Pandora Hearts fan! I caught up on the manga, but it took me 3 days. I spent hours reading that stuff and I must say it has the most complex plot, relationships, and characters EVER! SO MANY TWISTS! IT TRICKS YOU, THE HERO IS NOT WHO YOU THINK HE IS!**

**Reviews are welcome **

**P.S MERRY CHRISTMAS :D**


	18. Escaping

**Hello again! First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope we have an even better year this time. The plot has been CRAZY, but I've managed to make sense of it...kinda...**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE OCS AND PLOT!**

"Remind me how you guys got so close all of a sudden? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this." A wary Minho said with a sigh. "I already explained it," an equally wary Gray sighed. Astrid, still latched onto his waist, sniffed slightly.

"Oh stop your crying!" Minho snapped. She flinched and whimpered slightly. He grabbed her and yanked her off of Gray's waist non-too-gently. "N-No~! G-Garry-san!" She wailed, thrashing around in his grasp. "Get a grip!" Minho snapped before slapping her. Her head was forced to the side from the force of the blow and her hair fell over her eyes. There was silence that seemed to stretch on forever until Astrid spoke.

"...You'll pay dearly for that you cheap bastard." She muttered lowly. Minho sat back and laughed. Gray merely sighed again. "What are you laughing about!?" Astrid snapped with a glare. "Nothing, nothing." Minho chuckled. "It's good to have you back, Astrid-chan." Gray said with a small smile. " 'Astrid-chan...?' "Astrid choked with wide eyes. He seemed to notice what he just said because his eyes widened.

"Ah! I'm sorry, that was-" "Whatever! I'm going to scout for food!"

With that, she stomped off. "Girls and their mood swings..." Minho muttered, shaking his head. "...don't you think that was a bit much?" Gray asked, standing and brushing the dirt off his pants before wincing. "You really shouldn't have done all that, with your arms burned and all..." Minho scolded. "I know but...you can't talk with your injured legs," Gray said quietly. Minho frowned before attempting to stand. He managed to stand straight for only a minute before shuddering and collapsing back to the ground. "You're even worse than me." Gray said with a small laugh. "Whatever..." Minho grumbled.

"Hey...shouldn't we look for Dia-chan?" Gray asked. "I'm not looking for that freak," Minho scoffed, rolling onto his back to stare up at the starry sky. "But...she's still part of our team right..?" Gray said with a sliver of hope in his voice. "Were you so zoned out you didn't hear her back there? She...she's not the Dia we know, hell, she's not even human." Minho almost growled.

"Don't say that...Dia, Ayano-chan isn't a bad person. She's just...different." Gray said with a nod. "Yeah, different from everyone else," Minho said snorted. "And what do you know about her? You were zoned out the whole time, you didn't notice anything!" Gray flinched before turning and walking away. "Wait...!" Minho started. Gray paused then said "Don't worry about it...I'll go look for her." With that, he continued walking.

Minho sighed for the nth time before rolling onto his side and shutting his eyes.

"Hey," the man said, nudging her. "Sing."

She ignored him and kept focused on her task. He nudged her again and repeated his order. "Yui-chi,"Arisu whispered nervously. Yuichi gave her friend a look before going back to her task. "Don't worry, Arisu-chan, I'll have us out of here by the end of the week." Yuichi muttered. She was currently plucking thorns out of some of the vines that surrounded their cage. The man that was guarding them knew what she was doing but didn't know the purpose. At the moment, he was simply bored so he decided to try and get a show from his prisoners, hence the nudging.

"Oi..."the man muttered lowly. She didn't even glance at him. "Y-yui-chi," Arisu whispered in terror. Finally Yuichi looked up only to look straight at a sharp piece of metal. The tip of a blade. The man was pointing his dagger at her. She froze and dropped the vine she was had been holding. "Sing." The man ordered again. "I-I don't know what song," She stuttered.

The man grinned. "That first song," he said. She blinked before barely nodding. He moved his blade away from her face and plopped back into his wooden chair. He was referring to the song she'd been singing when they first found her. It was a beautiful but untranslatable song. She tended to use the ancient fairy language for some of her songs. She's named the song he was referring to 'Friend'. It was dark yet told a story.

Taking a deep breath, she began singing. **(Note: This has been translated to English. Note 2: I don't own this song, no one does) **

_All by myself, waiting for a friend to show_

_My magic won't help me now_

_Not until you walk through the door_

_Please set me free_

_Don't be afraid _

_I am always by your side_

_Come now my friend_

_Death's sweet embrace_

_Was once a gift I yearned for_

_But now that I have found you_

_I don't need death, not anymore_

_Come set me free_

_You'll be okay_

_I'll keep you safe_

_So I beg,_

_Don't go away "friend"_

Yuichi exhaled slowly. Arisu smiled at her, clearly impressed. The man was also impressed judging from his high eyebrows. "Well done!" Arisu chirped. Yuichi smiled at her before grabbing the vine and continuing with her task. Arisu looked to the lowering sun and frowned slightly. _It's getting dark…_

Yuichi also glanced at the sunset and started speeding up her work. _I'll have us out of here by midnight._

"Ari-chan! Arisu!" Yuichi hissed as she shook her slumbering friend. Arisu stirred before opening her eyes and blinking blearily. "Yuichi…?" she whispered sleepily, slowly sitting up. "What're you doing?"

Yuichi glanced at the slumbering guard before responding. "We're going to escape now," she whispered. "We are? How?" Arisu whispered excitedly. Yuichi shushed her before gesturing to the vines she'd been working on. They were all thornless, if they were to slip through, there was no risk of getting pricked. "For this to work, we need to be totally quiet, can you do that?" She whispered seriously. Arisu nodded silently. "Good, now follow me."

In less than 2 minutes, both girl were outside of the cage and standing near the guard. "Should we take his knife?" Arisu asked quietly, looking at the exposed dagger handle. "No, it's too dangerous," Yuichi whispered back. Arisu shrugged before tip-toeing away from the man. Both girl snuck away from the guard and began their journey.

After a minutes, Arisu spoke at normal volume. "Okay so we escaped, what now?" she asked. "We're going to find Astrid-sama." Yuichi said. "And Ara-nii, right?" Arisu asked. "And your brother." Yuichi confirmed.

A comfortable lasted between the two girls for several more minutes before Arisu spoke again. "Hey…isn't there a faster way to travel?" she asked, a smile spreading across her face. Yumichi slowly turned to face her with a sigh. "That's dangerous you know…" she said. Arisu shrugged before unfurling her wings and letting them flutter for a few seconds. "C'mon, you know you want to." She said slyly.

Yumichi unfurled her own wings before fluttering them with a grin.

"Are we there yet?" a feminine voice whined. "No." a deep male voice replied monotonously. "Stop whining and be patient!" Another male voice snapped. "Oh shut it, ya big oaf!" the feminine voice retorted angrily. "Cut it out you two." The deep voice ordered calmly. "Yes, Archi-sama!" the feminine voice chirped. "Suck up…" the male voice muttered. "Komotori, don't answer him." Archi ordered. "Yes, Archi-sama!" Komotori chirped again. "Tch," the male voice said. They group was currently riding in a carriage heading west.

Suddenly, a groan resounded from the ground. They all looked down at the captive. It was a boy with short navy blue hair who was bound by his wrists and legs. He was also blindfolded and gagged. "Why did we need to capture him again?" Komotori asked, kicking the boy lightly. "We need his as bait." Archi said. "For the fairies?" the male voice asked. Archi shook his head. "No. We need him to lure the fairies' rulers, or rather, _that_ organization."

Komotori took out a small black box and opened it. Instantly, holograms and two dimensional screen appeared. "We aren't going for the whole organization right? Just the representatives." She said, tapping the screens in different places until a 3 holograms appeared. They were figures of 3 girls of different sizes. "Shiina, Astrid, and Yui Otome. Ages 24, 19, and 12. This is the right file, right?" She said. "Yes," Archi said, silently reading the screen.

"So we're capturing them right?" the male voice asked. Both Komotori and Archi nodded. "Find their locations." Archi ordered. Komotori exited out of the file and tapped a globe symbol. A grid map was brought up and 3 red dots appeared. "That's Astrid's location," Komotori said. "She must be travelling with others."

"Well it doesn't matter, we'll just take them too."

**Yay, extra-long chapter! This time, I didn't procrastinate, I just wanted to upload the chapter in the New Year (as much as it killed me to wait). The characters from before have returned and did stuff and things! Just to make this clear, I did not give the second guy a name because I couldn't think of one :P. I hope you all have a good holiday! P.S I'm going to take a little break after this, it won't be too long, and it's just to work on my other story as well as finish my over the break homework. **

**Review please!**


	19. We Meet Again

**Fanfiction Chapter 20 :D, I didn't think I'd see the day. Did anyone see chapter 414 (Anime only viewers, spoilers ahead)? It killed the fandom with the exception of a few, like me. TBH, I didn't really care. We never knew Igneel much anyway, we just knew OF him. Don't judge meh. Just a notice, there's some japanese in this chapter (a song).**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but OCs and plot.**

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><p>Astrid had woken up with a major headache and an aching cheek. Automatically, she threatened who she assumed had dealt the blow. It was Minho, of course it was him. It's <em>always <em>him. And the bastard had the guts to laugh? Oh he's a dead man.

Almost as if it was agreeing, her stinging cheek pulsed causing her to wince and touch it gingerly. "He's so dead…" She muttered dangerously. Currently, she was stomping through the forest, fuming angrily. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she was getting away from those idiots.

"_It's good to have you back, Astrid-chan" ._ Her face started burning. "Th-that IDIOT!" She roared as she kicked a tree. "What's with that nickname anyway...It doesn't suit me at all" she huffed, continuing walking.

After a few minutes of enjoying the sounds of nature she heard something unusual. It was definitely human, a voice. _Who could possibly be out here? At this hour nonetheless? _For a moment she was conflicted; curious yet too cautious to go by herself. This conflict didn't last for long as her body suddenly started going toward the source of the voice.

"Wh-gh!" was all she could get out before her mouth shut against her will. _What's happening?!_ she cried mentally. All she could do was glance around frantically as she moved closer.

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><p><em>Nagaku nagai tabi datta ne<em>

_bokura deau ano toki made _

_bunshi kigo kataware ni yo _

_kimi ga inai boku nara…_

_isso kuchita hakofune ni_

_kegareta mi o nagate _

_utsukushii uso de oboreteitai _

_ai takute ae nakute kimi wa doko na no?_

_wakaranai kiki takunai mada shinjitsu wa_

_tobenai tori tachi no rekuiemu ga mata_

_hibiku no wa shangri la no kokoro_

"Woah...who taught you that?" Arisu asked in awe. "It was...a very special person." Yumichi said cheerfully. Both girl were _still _flying over the seemingly never ending carpet of suddenly slowed down, falling behind. "What is it?" her companion asked, concerned. "That's...Ara-nii" Arisu muttered, scanning the surface far below them.

"Eh? Arata-kun? You sense him?" Yumichi questioned, flying closer to her friend now. "Yeah...Ara-nii,... he's here!" Arisu announced before diving toward the ground. "W-Wait! Don't go by yourself!" Yumichi cried before diving after her."Y-You can't just take off like that!" Yumichi scolded while trying to catch her breath, but Arisu clearly wasn't paying attention. "Hey-" "SHHHH!"

Yumichi recoiled at the sudden silencing but bit her tongue nonetheless. Arisu pointed down to something on the ground, but it was hard to see considering they were practically on the tree tops. Then she saw it. A eyes widened as Arisu nodded. "Ara-nii is definitely in there." she said with uncharacteristic seriousness. "But...isn't that just a passerby?" Yumichi asked in confusion. "No-look closer," Arisu said, pointing to the window.

Squinting, Yumichi could barely make out people in there. A group perhaps? There seemed to be three of them. "I don't see anything special-" "Look closer! On the floor! The floor!"Squinting even more, Yumichi managed to get a glimpse of the floor inside the vehicle. She gasped. It was a boy, tied up, on the floor. It could be anyone but she could tell it was him. "Yumi-chan, I'm going to rescue him," Arisu said. "Will you join me?"

"Y-Yeah,"

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><p>She had no idea how long she'd been walking, but she guessed it'd been an hour. That's what it felt like anyway. The voice had stopped a little while ago but she still wasn't in control of her body. She was currently walking into an area with a little less foliage, but a lot of trees anyway. <em>Jeez, where am i even GOING? <em>Astrid thought, frustrated at the loss of body control.

After a few more minutes, her body finally stopped and she got feeling in her arms and legs again. Letting out a sigh of relief, she was about to turn around and go back when she noticed something. Or rather, someone. "You….!" she gasped in horror.

"I've been waiting for you Ast~rid~chan~!" she giggled. "W-What are you doing here?!" Astrid growled, regaining her composure. "Oh how rude of you, can't you even call me by my name?" _she _said with a pout.

"Ito, I swear if you don't leave right now I'll-" "You'll what?"

Ito smiled as strolling casually over to her. "You can't hurt me, I'm not human after all." she said. "Besides, I'm your power. You need me." "I don't need anything from _you _of all _things_." Astrid said lowly. "Oh~you're so mean Astrid-chan~!" Ito said, swirling like a barillina.

"Leave me alone already!" Astrid fumed, balling her hands into fists. "I'm afraid I can't. Since we're bound by the contract, I have to stay by your side at all times from now on." Ito said with a sigh. "Yeah,right" Astrid said with a scowl as she turned to leave. She'd barely taken three steps before Ito spoke again.

"Oh by the way, I met with Okami-chan today, another seishin. From the looks of it, she forged a contract recently too. With a boy. Oh, what was his name? Something with a color…." She said with a smirk. Astrid stopped mid step and didn't continue, but she didn't turn around either. "You know Astrid-chan, there's perks for the seishin too when a contract is formed." Ito purred. "We get to have a partner in battle, we get to know the outside, and we always get….you,"

Astrid whipped around at neckbreaking speed. "What are you talking about?!" she yelled. Ito smiled before continuing. "Since we're the ones that cleanse your impurities, we get knowledge of your mind and what makes you tick. And as you may have heard, once a seishin is dark enough, it implodes causing an explosion of negativity which ultimately converts the user into an Astoben. But, since the body is already a hollow shell at that point, it's free so...y'know…" Ito explained. Astrid's eyes widened in horror and she froze for a moment before turning and sprinting into the woods.

She heard Ito's distant calls for her to wait but she ignored them all. _Gray is in danger _was the only thing on her mind. She tripped and stumbled a few times but she didn't stop running.

She spotted something in the distance, a person? Yes, it was definitely a person. She turned course toward them, not even caring who it was. She was a few yards away from them when something rammed into her side, sending her flying. Whatever she'd collided with went flying with her rolling a few times, she finally came to a stop. With a groan, she sat up and shook her head violently to try and get rid of the stars she was seeing.

Then,she looked down and what...no, who'd hit her. It was a girl and she was about to ask her if she was alright before she noticed the face. She immediately recognized it.

"D-Dia?"

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><p><strong>Whew! That took just as long as I expected. Well, I guess I'm pretty late for updating but whatever, this chapter's events should make up for it (hopefully).Hehe, Astrid's such a tsundere... Did anyone recognize the song? Hint: It's by Asami Imai and it's used in a certain horror anime. <strong>_**WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE . **_**And obviously, I don't own the song. Oh, and to all you silent readers out there, THE VIEWS HAVE BEEN FREAKIN CRAZY, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU GUYS READ THIS?! That makes up for the review I guess. I kinda gave up on those, we'll have to wait until like, chapter 30 (if I even get there) for someone new to come and leave a note. ALSO, just a heads-up, if everything goes according to plan, characters from FT should show up in maybe 10 chapters…? I'm not sure. **

**Welp, that's all I got.**


	20. Everyone is Together

**Chapter 21, okay. I'm have literally nothing to talk about except that Pandora Hearts is ending in a couple of chapters I think. T^T I only started reading it a month or two ago too...BUT a story called Attor Reflection finally got updated today! It's a slave story featuring Gray, I looooove it~!**

**DISCLAIMER : I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT THE PLOT AND OCs**

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><p>"D-Dia?!" Astrid squeaked in surprise. She stared down at said girl in shock then quickly scrambled away from her. Almost one cue,Dia sprang up and looked around frantically. Her eyes landed on Astrid and she shrieked before running off. "Wh...what.?" Astrid muttered, flabbergasted. Shaking her head, she stood up and brushed herself off.<p>

"What was that...? Can she get any weirder?" She said. She starting walking in the direction in which she'd been heading previously. "Oh my, she's certainly lost her marbles" _She _said in awe.

And that was Astrid's cue to start running again.

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><p><em>The sky was breaking, spiderweb like cracks everywhere. Buildings were crumbling , the pieces floating into the abyss above. He could only watch as the world came to an end. <em>

_In the middle of it all, someone was crying. They were in genuine despair. _

_"...rose. ..." _

_Voices started making themselves heard._

_"You're nothing but murderer."_

_"I hate you"_

_"I'm sorry"_

_"You can't be allowed to live"_

_""""You're sin is your existence""""_

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><p>His eyes flew open, pupils instantly darting around in alarm until his eyes landed on someone familiar. "Gray...?"<p>

Gray was leaning over him, looking concerned. "What're you doing back here, didn't you go off somewhere?" Minho muttered, rubbing his eyes. "Yes, but something's wrong" Gray said seriously. "What're you-""Gray!"

Both boys turned at the call to see Astrid bolting out of the woods and heading straight for them. "Something is definitely wrong." Minho confirmed. Astrid was standing in front of them seconds later, panting heavily. After recovering, she clamped her hands on Gray's shoulders."Are you okay,Gray?" She asked. Gray blinked before slowly nodding, clearly weirded out but her odd behavior. She let out a sigh of what he guessed to be relief before speaking again. "Give me your seishin." she ordered.

"Eh?" was all Gray said. "Just give it me!" Astrid demanded. "Eh?" He repeated. "Why do you want it?" Minho asked. "Look I just...I need it okay?" She said exasperatedly. "But…" Gray started."It's dangerous." Astrid said. Gray just looked away. Astrid's eyes narrowed dangerously and they stayed like that for a full minute. "Um," Minho said, sweat dropping.

Suddenly Gray's eyes widened before his pupils dilated and his gaze turned blank. Astrid let go of him and took a calm step back. "Gray…?" Minho called, confused and a little worried.

Gray did not respond but instead, he lifted his arm slightly. His hand glowed white and his seishin appeared again. Astrid reached out and grabbed it saying, "Sorry to do that to you but I really need this."

"What did you do?" Minho questioned, waving his hand in front of Gray's eyes. Astrid crouched down and started smashing the seishin against the ground. "It's a simple psychic trick," she grunted. "I just stopped his mental functions".

Her statement rendered Minho speechless. After a few minutes, the seishin started to crack. Astrid grinned then raised her arm up to smash it one more time when suddenly, "_**Stop!" **_

Astrid's head snapped up and she looked around wildly. "Who's there?!" she cried. Gray suddenly swayed and started falling backwards, but Minho managed to catch him. "H-Hey! Are you alright?!" he cried, shaking his unresponsive friend.

"_**Please...no more…"**_ the voice said in a pleading tone. "Show yourself!" Astrid demanded. The seishin in her hand suddenly started glowing brightly. She squinted at it and was about to bring it closed to her face when it flew out of her hand to the ground.

It glowed brightly for a few more seconds before the light faded. Both Astrid and Minho stared at what they guessed the seishin had turned into. "A...A little girl?!" Minho gasped as Astrid's eyes narrowed once again as she absorbed the girl's appearance.

She had long dark purple hair with some streaks of red which was partially covered by a captain's hat with a white bow that shielded her eyes from view. She was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with a white blouse on top, a black skirt that reached a little higher than her knees, and white shoes with small heels. She was also wearing a pendant in the shape of a lock. She looked like she couldn't be more than 10 years old.

"I am...my name is...you may call me…" she stuttered before taking a deep breath and starting over, "I am Noroi". "Who are you?" Minho asked, referring to her identity, not her name.

"I-I am Gray-san's seishin," she said shyly. Astrid was about to question her when she sensed someone behind her. She turned only to jump upon seeing Ito standing there with a smile. "Long time no see Noroi-chan!" Ito chirped.

"I-Ito-chan?!" Noroi gasped in surprise. "What're you still doing here? It's dangerous for you to be on the outside for so long!"

"It's alright, it's alright," Ito said nonchalantly, skipping over to her. "I could always do _the thing _to recharge anyway". "Hey! Don't ignore us!" Astrid snapped. Both girl turned at stared at her as if just noticing her presence.

Ito opened her mouth to reply when another voice cried out. "Ito-chan! Noroi-chan!"

Both girls turned toward the direction of the voice then their eyes widened. "A-A-Ayano-sama!?" Noroi squeaked. "Ayano?!" Minho and Astrid cried with equal shock.

And there she was, running towards the group at full speed. As soon as she reached them, Ayano walked in front of Astrid. "What're you doing back here?" Minho asked, holding Gray a little closer.

Ayano glanced at them before giving the two seishin a cold look. "Leave Astrid alone, Rabbit" she said. Ito looked at her as if she'd grown a second head, "What're you talking about? You're the one that assigned me to her in the first place".

Astrid's eyes widened, "Assigned…?!". Ayano looked at her sadly, "I'm sorry Astrid-chan, I thought it was for the time".

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><p>Minho looked back and forth between the two pairs of females nervously before looking down at his seemingly asleep friend. <em>How long is that psychic thing going to last?!<em>

"Gray...snap out of it already," he muttered, lightly shaking his friend again. This time, however, Gray reacted. He shifted slightly before opening his eyes, "...ah…" was all he said. Minho let out a sigh of relief before releasing him from his grasp, only for Gray to fall immediately.

Minho instantly kneeled down and picked him up, "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. '_Come to think of it..he doesn't look so good_' Minho thought, examining his friend. He looked dazed and tired, like he could pass out any second. "..n..fine.." he muttered.

"You're clearly not fine!" Minho snapped, gaining everyone's attention. "Gray!" "Gray-san!" Ayano and Noroi cried, both girl running over to him. Gray blinked blearily and squinted in an attempt to focus on them. "Aya...chan…" he muttered.

Both Minho and Astrid looked at him in confusion, bewildered by the nickname. Ayano reached out to Gray only for Minho to shield him protectively. "I won't let you," he said seriously.

Ayano looked hurt but nodded and backed up a little. "Minho-kun...please let me at least touch him, I won't hurt him, I promise" she pleaded. But Minho just shook his head fiercely. Astrid crawled over to them while Ito just watched from a distance.

"Gray-san, I'm sorry my injury is taking such a toll on you" Noroi said sadly. "What do you mean?" Minho asked, lowering his guard slightly. Noroi's timidness seemed to kick in again because she stuttered when speaking again. "W-Well...if a seishin is injured, t-the holder will be a-affected. But how m-much will depend on how s-strong the seishin is…"

"Then...you're not very strong…?" Minho pondered. Noroi hesitantly nodded. Gray suddenly sat up and looked straight at Ayano. "Aya-chan, you saw it didn't you?" he asked. She slowly nodded, surprised how he knew such a thing. He smiled at her slightly. "Aya-chan...can you do me a favor?"

"I already know," she said, turning to Noroi and putting her hand on the middle of the girl's collarbone. Her body glowed brightly for a second before she disappeared. Minho gaped at the girl's sudden disappearance. Ayano exhaled and unfurled her hand, which had curled into a fist, to reveal Gray's seishin, back in it's object form. The crack from earlier had completely disappeared.

"How did you…?" Astrid started. Ayano dropped his seishin back into Gray's hands. "I told you didn't I?These are my creations" Ayano said.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon, causing them all to look at it.

"Aya-chan…" Gray called softly. Ayano turned to look at him.

"I forgive you...for what you did...and changed…" He said. Ayano's eyes widened as a breeze swept through the area. "Really…?" She whispered. "Ayano...you weren't yourself…" Gray said. "Then…." Ayano said as tears welled up in her eyes.

Gray stood up, "You're an important person , right?" he said with a small smile. Tears fell from Ayano's eyes as she smiled widely and practically glomped him. "Gray-ku-!" "AAAAAAAAAHH!"

_And this seemed like some kind of happy ending too..._

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><p><strong>Yay, long chapter! I'm tired. BUT OH MY GAWD CHAPTER 416! SO MUCH FEELZ!Wendy...Y U GET YOUR HAIR LONG AGAIN?! IT COMPLETELY DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF CUTTING IT!Yay! Natsu's not emo AND WE FINALLEH GOT TO SEE JUVIA CONFRONTING GRAY AND HE HUGGED HER AND CRIED! :D. OMFG, EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO ASKFNELSBDJ *fangirling* . But wow...he really looked genuinely depressed….<strong>

**Yay, brief Jerza! AND NATSU LEAVING ?! WHAAAAAAAT?! At least it's to train...OH MY GOD, HE'S ACTUALLY GONNA WORK FOR HIS POWER?! YESSSSS! and he's actually END...dang it...I didn't think Hiro would actually go through with it...PRACTICALLY ALL of the fanbase called it. I didn't but I wasn't really surprised. **

**WAIT! Gray said he's gonna destroy END but Natsu is END so…*insert fangirl meltdown* . So excited for chapter 417 anyway! I'm pretty sure it's about Natsu and Happy, I swear if Lucy manages to catch up to them, I'll be so pissed. He needs to do this ALONE (only with Happy, his childhood 'friend'). Why does everyone keep saying that Lucy lost someone else? He's LEAVING not DEAD. I hope there's not a training arc, that'd suck. I just want a timeskip, a REAL time skip, like what One Piece did.**

**Also, Doranbolt...I never really cared honestly but I guess it's fine if he was a member of Fairy Tail all along...to bad it's disbanded right as he found out...Anyway, I've rambled enough so I wish to know...who wants a training arc?**

**Now...review plz.**


	21. Searching

**Herro~! I have another announcement to make: I shall be updating this every 10 days! (or sooner). But along with this change there shall be another change to the update schedule of my other story. Definitely updating that less often. So the schedule is: 5th NHD, 10th this story and so forth. Since none of you have been reviewing, I'll take that as no objections to this change. **

**DISCLAIMER : I don't own anything that's in Fairy Tail**

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><p><em>Crunch crunch crunch crunch<em>

"Are you sure it came from this way?" "I'm sure"

_Crunch crunch _went the sticks and leaves as the group stepped on them. Currently, they were on their way to find out where that blood-curling scream had come from. Shortly after they'd heard it, Ito couldn't help but glance back at Gray and Ayano, who were walking next to each other, every once in a while. A while being a few minutes.

"What's with those two?" Astrid hissed. She looked mad and judging by the way she was practically stomping, she was furious."Dunno," Minho said nonchalantly, glancing back at the pair again. "But I still don't trust her."

Meanwhile, Ayano and Gray were walking in silence. "I've done so many things to you..." Ayano said quietly, not looking at him. Gray gave her a sideways glance. "Well, that was _her. You_ didn't do anything wrong" he said. Ayano huffed and looked away from him, "We're the same person, idiot…."

She took a few more steps before knocking into the now unmoving Minho. "Uff! What's the big deal?" She asked, glaring at him lightly. He didn't respond but he was looking around wildly, looking baffled."What is it, idiot?" Astrid asked with a roll of the eyes. "...There was...a...thing...there…" Minho said, barely above a whisper. "I don't see anything," Gray said, glancing around. "It...left...just now" Minho said, speaking in an oddly quiet tone.

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><p>"Yumichi, Arisu, Arata. You three have been quite troublesome for us"<p>

The three fairies refused to look at their captors. "Sorry Ara-nii…" Arisu muttered, looking down with guilt. Her now mostly unrestrained brother lifted a hand and patted her head without a word.

"Alright so you caught us, what're you going to do? Who are you anyway?" Yumichi inquired.

"My name is Archi, Archi Akhiro Stormsabre the XIII'th. These are my assistants; Komotori and Daiki. And we plan to use you as bait" Archi explained, eying Yumichi's wings with interest. Noticing his gaze, she squirmed nervously.

"So this is the real thing huh?" Komotori said, tugging on Arisu's wings. "Hey!" Arisu protested, slapping her hand away with a flutter of her wings.

Yumichi sighed and looked at the morning sky, _I thought that plan could've worked…_

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><p><strong>20 minutes earlier<strong>

_Yumichi and Arisu were flying directly above the carriage. "So, how do we get him out of there?" Yumichi whispered. "Hmmm, we should break him out" Arisu decided. "Yeah, but how?" Yumichi asked._

"_I'll go to the driver and distract him until he loses control. When they crash, they'll get out to inspect the vehicle which is when we'll swoop down and grab him" Arisu explained. "Isn't that a little too risky?" Yumichi asked nervously. _

"_It's better than nothing," Arisu said with a shrug. With that, she swooped down low and went to where she thought the driver would be._

_She made sure to stay out of sight when going past the passenger's window. For a moment, she thought she saw the girl inside's eyes glance in her direction. If the girl had seen her, she showed no signs of it._

_Arisu went to the front of the carriage, expecting to see a driver's seat or something. There was a driver but he was inside a box of some sort. He only noticed her when she knocked on the windshield. His eyes got really big and his jaw dropped.__She just smiled and waved a little. That seemed to do it for him as he passed out seconds later. The vehicle quickly lost control and veered right, straight towards a tree. Arisu grinned before giving the signal. Just as she gave it, she heard the shattering of glass._

_Still high in the air, Yumichi got the signal and started descending. She'd made it to about 20 feet above the vehicle before she felt a sharp pain in her left wing. She craned her neck to look at it.__An arrow. A standard arrow was lodged in her wing. Her eyes widened before she felt herself descending faster than she wanted to. With a shock, she realized that she was _falling.

_Automatically she started flailing and trying to fly with her wings, only to get a sharp pain each time she moved them. Looking down, there was only a little distance between her and the hard ground._

_6 feet,_

_5 feet,_

_4 feet,_

_2 feet._

_Something grabbed her from behind and managed to stop her, her nose was inched above the ground. "Yumichi, what's wrong? Oh God, your wing-!" Arisu cried._"_Tch, you flies are annoying but make for good target practice" A girl's voice said. They both turned towards it and saw a girl standing there, a bow in hand._

Next, Komotori tugged on Yumichi's wing, the one she hit. The fairy winced but didn't say anything else. "Leave her alone," Arata ordered. Komotori scoffed before yanking on Yumichi's wing, causing the fairy to shriek in pain.

"Stop!"

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><p>"Ito…"<p>

"Hmm?"

"Why is Aya-san so different?"

"It's because of you holder, Gray. She's changing for him."

"...Then, is it love?"

"Most likely,"

"But what about your holder's feelings?"

"Meh, she'll live. Besides, I think that little betrayal made her rethink her feelings"

"Ito...I saw Leo-san the other day,"

"The celestial spirit?"

"Yes, although we didn't talk…"

"You hid and watched him from afar didn't you?"

"Maybe…"

"Noroi, you know we're not supposed to go into another dimension without permission."

"But I got permission! I mean, the master told me I should follow him."

"Why?"

"Master said we need to start looking out for the zodiac spirits."

"Why?"

"Because...we need to be ready for the reset."

"How do we know she'll reset it this time? She seems pretty happy at the moment."

"She will reset, all because of Gray-san."

"...She's quite the yandere isn't she?"

"Yet so innocent, it's scary."

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><p><strong>Yay! Long but not really chapter! Did anyone read chapter 417? That was such. a. troll. Everyone was so hyped but we got so let down...At least chapter 418 will make up for it. It's going to show the results of the timeskip, and it's 33 pages with a colored cover! SO EXCITED! MUCH HYPED! VERY LAME JOKE. In case you couldn't tell, I've decided to bring the FT members back into this. I noticed I was getting a little off topic so, why not? Although now the story line will be crazy and random.<strong>


	22. Approaching Danger

**The renovation took less time than I thought, and I finally got a plot anchored down thanks to the Mermaid Swamp game.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's**

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><p>Everyone was now watching Minho who was glancing around every few seconds, still bewildered by his earlier spotting.<p>

_Maybe...he has some kind of eye ability…?_ Gray pondered, still staring at Minho. His thoughts were interrupted when Ayano slid her fingers down his arm gently. "It was the explosion wasn't it? How come you're the only one injured this bad?" She asked. "He was protecting me," Astrid blurted, having overheard Ayano's question. "And saved this bastard next to me."

"Did you thank him?" Ayano asked. Both Astrid and Minho paused, realizing that they _hadn't _thanked him at all. "W-Well…" Astrid started, looking at the ground. "Thanks." Minho said. "What he said." Astrid said. "It's fine," Gray dismissed.

"...So, what happened to you?" Astrid asked suddenly. Ayano gave her a bewildered look, prompting her to continue.

"Back in the forest, as soon as you saw me, you took off screaming. Why?"

"I had a rather disturbing dream beforehand, I'd rather not talk about it."

"A nightmare?"

It was Astrid's turn to look confused. "What kind of dream would make ya scream Bloody Mary like that…" she muttered. "It's not my fault you were in it…" Ayano said almost inaudibly. "So," Minho started. "Where are we going?" Astrid looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Did you not hear that scream earlier?!"

"No,no, I mean what's our goal now that we've escaped? Do we even have a sure destination?"

Astrid stopped, and turned to face him. "Well...we're going to a nearby town," she said. "And which town would that be?" Minho questioned. "Any town, even a small village would do!" Astrid said, voice steadily rising. She'd always had a thin patience with him. "With that mindset we'd be wondering aimlessly for days," Ayano muttered.

"What do you want to do? Go back to that prison?" Astrid snapped. "No need to get so feisty. Even someone with your temper wouldn't lash out that fast," Ayano said smoothly. "We should go to Magnolia," Gray suggested. "That's where Fairy Tail is."

Minho shrugged, Ayano gave a slight nod of approval, but Astrid didn't react. "Is that...fog?" she muttered. She was looking West. Everyone followed her gaze, and noticed that there was a indeed a wall of fog heading straight towards them. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't there earlier," Minho said warily. Gray suddenly stiffened.

"What is it? Do you sense something?" Ayano inquired, immediately putting her guard up. Gray only gave a stiff nod in return. "It's an Astoben," he said quietly. Astrid stared at him blankly as Ito's words flew through her mind. **Once a seishin is dark enough, it implodes causing an explosion of negative energy which ultimately converts the user into an Astoben. **

"But...how Dia said..she created it***(referring to the Seishin, not the Astoben)** herself so how is someone already?!" She whispered to herself. "A _what?_" Minho said. "Just don't move, keep your mind blank, and disregard any voices or feelings," Gray said calmly. The wall of fog was very close now, yards away. Too late to run. Ayano looked up at it. It towered above them, and seemingly some of the treetops. It was pure white, almost shiny somehow, and no sunlight penetrated it.

She jumped slightly when Gray grabbed her hand. As the tendrils of fog closed in, she saw him mouth the words _don't let go._

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><p><strong>I think I'm over the Author's block now, thank God. I don't know why, but I feel the strong need to leave cliffhangers. Thank you to all the loyal readers who put up with my fits. As you can see, the story will be taking a detour from the original, meaning Archi and the others won't show up for a little while longer. But, we will get to see Astrid's powers once , I'm considering writing on Wattpad again, but for some reason, I have a crippling fear of publishing anything on there. But if I do, it'll be original with more original OCs. <strong>

**Sorry for the very short chapter, but please keep in mind that I'm trying to get things organized! Review please.**


	23. Illusions Hide the Monster Underneath

**Sorry, not sorry. I've been reading the Anna Dressed in Blood series and got hooked. Marathoned the second book, causing me to procrastinate. Also took a while to figure out transition between major events a.k.a now. Plus I got hooked on Witch by Luka. AND I was working on the outline for my original story. Yes, I'm making an original one. Hopefully without having to follow the rules and characters of someone else's world, I'll be way better at writing that one. Still thinking of a good title. The place holder is 'Step by Step'. BTW almost 2,000 words in this one. This may be the longest chapter to date O_o**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's.**

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><p><em>Ayano jumped slightly when Gray grabbed her hand. As the tendrils of fog closed in, she saw him mouth the words<em> _**don't let go**__._

* * *

><p>Gray braced himself for the negative emotions that were sure to come once the fog hit. He closed his eyes as the fog surrounded and trapped him and the others. He felt the warmth of the faint sunlight disappear abruptly, replaced by a somewhat chilly atmosphere. Everything was silent for what felt like a long time.<p>

Finally, he heard the faint whisper of his name. "...Gray-kun?" he heard Ayano whisper. He slowly opened his eyes. What lay before him was a deceptively stunning sight. They were standing in a field of roses, poppies, and poinsettias. There was dim lighting, making the bright red colors stand out more. He looked up and noted that there was no exact sky, very far up was simply a large canopy of vines that looked like they'd been drawn with crayon somehow.

"Are you scared?" he asked. She didn't answer. He took her silence as a yes. "We should look for the others, they probably got lost in the illusion," he said. He took a step forward only to have Ayano yank him back by the arm. "Stay with me, please," she said quietly. He only looked at her with slight wariness before pulling her along with him.

After only a few steps, his seishin appeared, glowing faintly and pulsing. Gray didn't hesitate to grab it, allowing it's magic to flow through him and transform. "This really mimics Erza's magic doesn't it?" he said with a small laugh. "Gray-kun…?"Ayano called in slight bewilderment of his sudden cheerfulness. "Oh it's nothing," he dismissed, pulling her through the field of flowers.

Ayano noticed, with a slight unnerving feeling, that all of the flower petals seemed sharpened somehow. "It's here," Gray breathed. She looked around, finding nothing different from before. "The core, it's there," he said almost as if dazed. "Gray-kun?" Ayano called in worry. She did not like the look he had.

This time, he didn't respond, instead summoning a rapier and escalating his pace. His sleeve slipped from her grasp with surprising ease. Without warning, he jumped and drove his sword into seemingly nothing...until she saw cracks coming from where the tip his sword was. It seemed to be cracking the air itself.

"Wh-what the…" She managed to whisper before the scene before her shattered like glass. Literally, everything except her and Gray seemed to freeze then shatter to reveal a more terrifying sight. The red flowers had been replaced by _writhing _pieces of garbage. A few yards in front of where Gray was standing was a giant monster. It looked like a paper cutout of a garbage pile with nature mixed in. It had a head of what looked to be a soda can with a large ragged cut that opened and closed, it must be the mouth. The rest of the upper body was a mess of random garbage scraps, the arms looking like tree roots. Below that was nothing but a constant flow of a black substance that reminded her of oil.

The monster roared and sent what looked like tires straight at Gray. He easily dodged, but they pursued him, completely ignoring her. She watched in awe as Gray cut them down and charged the monster. He leaped and was about to land a blow when the black substance suddenly swatted him away.

He was sent flying into a nearby wall and hit it with a sickening crack. Ayano quickly rushed over in worry. "Are you alright?" she asked. He was still for a moment then sat up. Ayano gasped. Blood was flowing from a cut on his forehead. "I'm fine," he said, seemingly oblivious to the injury. With that, he stood and started charging the monster again.

Ayano watched him for a minute before shaking her head. "At this rate, I'll have to summon _her_. I hope _that person_ will agree with her."

* * *

><p><em>It warm and bright when she opened her eyes. "Astrid!" Gray called, jogging over to her. "Even if it's nice weather outside, it's not good to doze off like that," he scolded lightly. "Ah, sorry," Astrid said playfully, standing up from her position beside the tree she'd been leaning on. "It's alright. The real problem is not hosting the party," Gray chuckled. <em>

_Astrid giggled and skipped into the crowd of guests. "So many sweets~!" she swooned upon reaching the dessert table. She grabbed a plate and was about to dig in when someone bumped into her. "Ah sorry," the person said as she turned to face them. Astrid found herself staring at Minho. "Watch where you're going," she grunted in response. He merely waved it off and disappeared into the crowd. _

"_Astrid-chan!" she heard Dia's voice call. She turned and was nearly tackled to the ground as the girl hugged her. "It's been so long since I've seen you!" she said cheerfully, smiling up at Astrid. Though she had Dia's voice, she definitely wasn't her. She had long peach colored pigtails that went to her lower back and gray eyes. Dia had orange hair and brown eyes. _

"_Who're you?" Astrid questioned, prying the girl's arms from around her waist. "Hmm? You don't remember my face? Jeez, I must've changed more than I thought," the girl said, stepping away from her with a small twirl. "Then, my name must spark something for ya." _

"_My name is.." The girl's voice suddenly became muffled and distorted. "...I'm Ayano's…."_

_Astrid could only stare at her in confusion as her voice got more and more distorted. Suddenly, she heard the ticking of a clock. Looking around, she noticed everything had turned gray and no one was moving. When she turned back to the girl, in her place was a glowing seishin._

_Astrid gasped as what looked to be translucent ribbons started flowing out of the object and toward her. They entangled around her, wrapping, binding and squeezing. She thrashed in vain. In her struggling, she failed to notice that they were dissolving and transforming her clothes. When they finally loosened, she was blinding by the light they'd started emitting. __**What the hell is this?! **__she thought in alarm._

_Suddenly, distorted noise and voices filled her head, making her flinch. The voices were all shouting the same thing, it was the only thing she could understand from the mess in her head. _

"Get down!"

* * *

><p><em>Perfect.<em>

_That was the only word he could use to describe how he felt. _

_Everything was calm, everyone was having a good time, and the atmosphere was light. Right now, Minho couldn't be happier. He was dressed up in suit and tie, attending a fancy ball, dancing with a beautiful girl. She had long caramel hair and bright blue eyes. _

"_I'm glad I got to spend time with you Minho," she said cheerfully. He laughed as he spun her. "Me too." They danced a bit longer in silence until the music slowed and the lights dimmed. He put a hand on her upper back and took her hand with the other. She smiled and rested her arm on his shoulder. "Ah, it's the Waltz," she murmured. _

"_That's right," he said, beginning to gently lead her into the dance. She followed his lead gracefully. _

_Gliding around the room in their own world, the couple failed to notice the dissolving of their surroundings. The walls, chairs, tables, even the other guests began dissolving into little particles of white and golden lights. The ceiling faded to reveal what looked to be water resting above them. _

_Beyond the walls were stars. Thousands of stars just rotating in a slow circle around them. "Minho," the girl whispered. "Let's stay like this. Just you and I." Her voice did not echo. "Of course," he murmured. She sighed happily and rested her head on his chest. He smiled softly and looked past her into the stars. _

"_Isn't it beautiful?" _

_Minho's eyes widened at the new voice. He looked around in slight alarm until his eyes fell upon a figure illuminated by the small lights. "Who're you?" he asked, pulling the girl's strangely stiff body closer protectively. _

_The lights lit up only the figure's legs and feet. They were wearing striped knee-high socks and beige ballet slippers. "Saki is my name, making contracts is my game."_

_The figure stepped closer. "Now, what is it you want?" the figure asked. Minho narrowed his eyes at the figure suspiciously. "I already have everything," he said cautiously. "You mean a beautiful lover? I didn't think it was possible to have children with a statue."_

_Almost involuntarily, Minho glanced down. Impossibly, the girl he'd been with had turned to stone. "And a beautiful home? I don't think so," the figure continued. With those words, the scenery morphed into a huge garbage dump, the water above turned into thick green gas, and the stars vanished. The statue cracked and turned into dust._

_Minho's eyes widened at the abrupt change. "Wh-What did you do? Who are you?!" he exclaimed. "Me? I just dispelled that little illusion you were in. Now that you asked, I'll introduce myself."_

_The figure walked until they were mere feet away from him. She looked to be older than Noroi, but younger than him. She had auburn hair with streaks of rose red that was styled into two french braids that went down to a few inches below her collarbone. Her bangs covered her eyes entirely. She was wearing a hoodie that was the color of a foggy mirror with auburn shorts and rainbow colored striped knee high socks. Along with that were black sneakers. _

"_Why is my outfit so mixed up? It has to do with my power of course," she said. "I wouldn't be too devastated about that girl from before. You didn't know her name anyways," she continued with a yawn. "Now onto business."_

_Minho stared as she curtsied and said, "Saki is my name, making a contract is my aim." Minho's eyes widened. Saki smiled, "You know what I am right?"_

"_You...you're one of _those_," Minho said with revulsion. Saki frowned. "_Those _have names ya know. It's called a seishin."_

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><p><strong>Aaaand, cut! Alright, that was good after taking a break. Everyone's getting seishins now. I'm not gonna hope for reviews after this, I'm horrible with my hiatus and unorganization _. Hopefully, I got my stuff together for sure this time and won't have to go on hiatus again. Anyways, the things seen in the illusions are going to be of value later. Of course, new character means more explanation and details (yay!)<strong>

**Reviews are appreciated, but I don't blame you if you don't.**


	24. Release

**Did you see the 2nd movie teaser for FT? Looks like Natsu's finally gonna have consequences of using his friendship firepower all the time. In recent manga, the whole over 700 guilds came out of nowhere. There hasn't even been a shadow of a mention and all of a sudden, BOOM, huge threat! *sigh* Whatever, at least Mest got hotter and we finally got a solid name for him. **

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of Mashima's**

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><p>Astrid only blinked numbly as her friends approached her. "Are you alright?" Ayano asked, glancing down at her clothes for a moment. "Yeah, what happened?" Astrid asked, shaking her head a little in an attempt to clear her head. "Your transformation is one of the flashy kinds," Gray said simply.<p>

Astrid stared at him in confusion before the events that transpired flashed in her head. "That's right!" she said suddenly, looking down at her clothes. To her surprise, they were completely different.

Her tattered shirt was replaced by a lavender and purple striped tank top with a row of buttons going up the middle. It was accompanied by a tuxedo jacket that went to her midriff. Her ripped shorts were replaced by black shorts with a golden chain and red belt.

"What the-where'd all this come from?!" Astrid exclaimed incredulously. "So it seems your wish came true ,huh," Gray hummed, observing her. Astrid whirled on him. "What do you mean? You know something?"

Gray smiled slyly at her before nodding. "It's likely whatever illusion you saw triggered it," he said, stepping closer to her. "Triggered what? Tell me already!" she demanded. "Alright, no need to get so angry. First of all, do you remember when you first met Ito, right?" He began. "Well, during your encounter, you must've made a plea, a wish for something. In my case, it was to erase my darkness. So, my 'wish' gave me the inverse of that, making me 'light'. Your encounter must've involved you making a plea of some sort, and that wish was granted, giving you the powers you have now."

Astrid blinked owlishly at him for a few seconds. "Are you alright?" Ayano asked with a slight chuckle. "...Y-Yeah.." Astrid muttered. Suddenly, a wave of glass shards was thrown at them by the nearly forgotten monster. Gray calmly ducked, Astrid dove down and Ayano crouched low. "Oh yeah," she said after the glass had shattered upon impact on the wall behind them. "Where's Minho?"

Astrid and Gray blinked in surprise. Incredulously, they hadn't realized his absence. "He must've gotten trapped in an illusion," Gray muttered. "Don't tell me we have to look for him," Astrid groaned in annoyance. Ayano glanced around, "There's no sign of him. I guess we do."

"Only that airhead would get stuck this long," Astrid said, clearly displeased at the idea of having to go look for him. "Well we have no choice do we?" Gray said, glancing back at the monster which for some reason had slowed in its movements. "But, where are we supposed to look? All that's here is…" Ayano gestured to the dump around them hopelessly. Once again, Gray smiled slyly and turned to the monster. "That's easy," he said, walking toward the beast. "We just have to look for the reality among the lies."

With that, he reached out and touched it. And then, he was gone.

* * *

><p>Now a days it was always so dark in her home. Nothing really had any life to it anymore, and almost everyone avoided her. And those who dared to approach her were always so strange, she could barely hold a civil conversation.<p>

She gently laid the cherry blossom tree's petals that had collected in her hands on her lap. She then proceeded to grab one of her long pigtails and began plucking petals out of it. "Let's see...how many years has it been since that time? I've grown so much, so it must've been quite some time…" she murmured to herself. "I'm guessing by the length of my hair it's been maybe a year or two."

"I wonder how much _they've _grown over time," she mused as she plucked out the last petal. "I want to see them again." She layed down on her back and gazed up through the gaping hole in the ceiling, past the cherry blossom tree, into the sun. "Sen-kun...I want to see you again. It was always so much brighter when you were around," she whispered, reaching up and catching a single falling petal.

"Without him, I've lost my purpose to live. Even knowing what would happen, you still steal him from my side?" She grabbed the petal with her other hand and tore it in two, one half in each hand. "I think that both of your will never find happiness. You two cannot be happy together…"*

Tears fell from her eyes as she attempted to put the petal back together. "Because I will always love Sen-kun….forever…."

* * *

><p>Noroi huffed in disapproval for the umpteenth time that day at Gray's actions. "That vessel of yours sure is reckless," Ito mused beside her. Noroi looked away from the screen that projected what was happening to the trio, and at Ito. The screen blurred and turned to static. "Sometimes I hate being able to see what he's seeing," Noroi sighed.<p>

Ito smiled and threw her arm around her friend's shoulders. "That's why you have me! With yours truly around, we can see from two POVs," she said, gesturing to the screen parallel to Noroi's. It projected Astrid's vision. Noroi nodded and slid closer to her companion.

"_**Ah, how reckless."**_

Noroi turned toward the third, unwelcome person in the large space. "Why are you here?" she inquired warily.

"_**I'm stuck in here same as you. Have you already forgotten?" **_

Ito scooted a little closer to Noroi with a slight shudder. Noroi simply squeezed her shoulder. "No, but why are you in our space? You have your own don't you?" she asked. "_**Fine, fine, I'll go."**_ With that, they walked away and vanished into the white blankness beyond. "...Sorry about that," Noroi said after a moment of silence. "That _thing _always creeps me out one way or another," Ito muttered.

"Oh, the screen is clear again!" Noroi said excitedly, happy to be changing the subject. But, her excitement was quickly replaced by the cold chill of fear. "Is that…" Ito whispered, staring wide eyed at the screen, completely ignoring her own.

"What's he doing in that place?!" she cried in shock. "I-I don't know! There's no way he should remember that! After we-" She stopped short when Noroi shot up and bolted toward the screen. "I'm going!" she called as she leapt into the screen and disappeared. Ito copied her actions with the exception of running. "That demon must've done something in his mindscape. There's no way he'd remember any other way," She muttered as she stepped into her own screen and disappeared.

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><p><strong>Done with another chapter! I'm really picking up steam with this story now, but at the expense of my other one. I just can't have the inspiration for both at the same time apparently. With school out, I should be able to update way more ,right? Nope! My mom signed me up for a summer camp that's basically school that lasts for a few weeks then I go off for a week to an overnight camp in the woods. My summer sucks, it's not even a vacation. In better news, a youtuber I'm subscribed to actually replied to my comment and complimented me! ARABIC WAS FINALLY USEFUL! <strong>

**Leave a review, I could use the support. Happy Early Fathers Day!**


	25. Dispell

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's.**

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><p>Gray blinked owlishly at his new surroundings. He was standing in a field of moonflowers. The sky was dark, though glittering stars provided good lighting from above. The glowing moonflowers at his feet seemed endless. However, quite a distance away from Gray a figure was visible. It was nothing more than a silhouette, but it was something.<p>

Gray took his time strolling up to it. _I never really thought about my kind of paradise, but this seems a bit strange _he thought. A sudden disturbance in the still air made him pause. The silhouette was much closer now. Barely 10 yards away. With a shrug, Gray jogged the rest of the way to it.

Close enough to inspect it, he noticed several things. The first were that it was a person, a girl, and her back was to him. She wore a white sundress and lacked shoes. Her amber hair was pulled into two long pigtails that reached her lower back. She was clearly in her teenage years, being almost his height.

He was just within a foot of her when she suddenly turned. At the sight of her face, Gray froze. She had big russet eyes and the same facial structure as Ayano. Her gaze paralyzed him. Though he was internally puzzled, his face remained stoic. The girl smiled faintly and took a step so that she was standing directly in front of him.

"_Sen, I've missed you_," she whispered. Her voice was clear and soft,like the ringing of a bell. Her hand cupped the side of his face. "_Sen…_" He couldn't move a muscle to stop her. She leaned in close.

* * *

><p>Ito frowned at the sight of the monster. "It smells horrible." Astrid scoffed, "No one asked for your opinion or your presence on the matter." Ito raised a brow. "It's not my fault you're powerless on your own. The only reason I'm here is because we're linked,and if you get destroyed, I get injured. And I'd like to not get tainted today."<p>

"Look, I know you two aren't the best of friends, but could you not act like brats for a second?" Minho said. Ito waved a hand. "Don't worry about the mutant garbage pile, I got it," she said. She outstretched her hand toward the monster and, after a few seconds, each of her finger tips started glowing lavender. In a moment, the glow from her fingers flared then died to reveal a red chain sword whip in her hand.

"All of you stay back unless you want your heads accidentally chopped off," Ito warned and leapt toward the monster. It spotted her immediately. With a garbled screech, it shot a stream of glass shards at her. Ito, seemingly using the air itself as a platform, jumped out of the way. She lashed at the monster, creating a red horizontal line along its 'face' that spewed a green substance.

Minho and Ayano watched in amazement as Ito repeated this process several times until the monster's body was covered in crisscrossing red slashes that oozed green ichor. Astrid watched the onslaught in disgust and reluctant amazement. Satisfied, Ito let herself fall to the ground, only to land on her feet with perfect balance.

"Alright, my work is done," she said, a hint of pride in her voice. "But it's not dead yet," Ayano pointed out. The monster was indeed very much alive, thrashing around in a blind rage. Ito walked to Astrid and looked her straight in the eye. "Oh, I know," she said. "It's just not my job to finish it." She held out the end of her weapon to Astrid. "You're the one who gets the power boost, so you better use it. I'm only fighting this one time because it's the first battle. After this, you're on your own."

Astrid slowly grabbed the hilt and Ito let her hand fall to her side. "Now go finish it off," Ito ordered. Astrd took a few steps forward. Charging at the monster she said, "I don't need you to tell me what to do."

She launched herself at it, pulling back the whip. The monster charged at her as well, unaware of its fate. "I'm guessing you don't have a heart," Astrid said. "So, I'll go for the next best thing!"

It's neck was almost indistinguishable from its head, but Astrid could make out the difference. She threw her arm forward, along with the whip's end with a snap. The whip cut into the monster's neck, making an odd squishing sound. It emerged out of the other end in seconds, and the monster froze. With her momentum pushing her forward, Astrid aimed herself for the monster's head.

She gasped as she rammed into it. It was neither hard nor soft. It resembled clay in the way it absorbed her impact, but was like cardboard from the way it dented inward. The head jerked sharply then toppled to the ground, taking Astrid with it. The rest of the body stayed frozen for a moment longer before also collapsing.

* * *

><p>Noroi blinked in surprise. She was back in the forest. Though some fog remained, the monster and environment she'd seen through the screen were nowhere to be seen. "Gray?" she called hesitantly. No reply. She cautiously walked through the slowly dissipating fog. "Gray, are you alright?" she called a bit louder. Silence.<p>

She picked up the pace, along with her heart. Panic was slowly starting to creep into her veins. The forest suddenly seemed denser than before. In less than two minutes, she was already on the verge of running.

"Gra-" Suddenly, she was thrown forward. Noroi barely had anytime to keep herself from face planting. Luckily her arms had taken the brunt of the impact, but her palms stung. She shook it off and turned to see what had tripped her. She froze. She couldn't make out many details, but she could tell from the figure that it was a human body. She slowly inched closer and leaned forward.

The body's face was suddenly very clear. It was Gray, eyes open, staring into oblivion.

* * *

><p><strong>Aaand, cliffhanger. Yep. I learned the art of explaining in more detail to fill up space. Thank you Mortal Instruments books. The series is getting a TV show adaptation in 2016. I have to finish the books, but they're so thick. Like, almost Harry Potter thick. Especially the last one. I'm giving up on this story yet, in fact, I've figured things out. Hopefully, I'll actually keep it together this time. I think that's what I said last time too...<strong>

**Reason for not updating: Sudden obsession with art livestreams, trying to fill in gallery on DA, requests. Also, laziness. **


	26. Direct Confrontation

**I accidentally typed Astrid as Atris at some point. Maybe it's a new name for someone *shrug***

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of Hiro Mashima's.**

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><p>Everyone was looking down at Gray with varying degrees of worry and concern. "How did this happen?" Ito demanded. "I don't know. I just found him like this," Noroi said worryingly. "He's on his own for just a few minutes and this happens,"Astrid muttered.<p>

Everyone was looking down at Gray's unmoving body which was carefully laid out across Noroi's lap. "Do you know what's wrong with him?" Ayano asked quietly. She was ashen. "Not exactly," Noroi began, "But I have a theory."

"So that's where you went," a voice from behind exclaimed. Everyone whirled around with a hint of alarm. There, in the fog, leaning casually against a tree was a young girl. She had magenta ombre haired tied up in two pigtails that trailed to her hips on either side of her head. She seemed to be about the same age as them from her height and curves. She was wearing a purple and pink checkered tank top with a long sleeved dark red shirt underneath. Her dark red capris with purple shorts on top and black combat boots completed her appearance.

"Who're you?" Minho demanded. "We've been looking for you, y'know. Never thought you'd be in the middle of nowhere," the girl said, ignoring Minho completely. Her eyes flicked to Gray. "We can help him, if you want. But, you'll have to come with us."

Ito clicked her tongue. "Who's this "we"?"

The girl grinned, "Come with me and you'll find out." with that, she turned on her heel and started walking deeper into the bush, not checking to see if they were actually following. Everyone looked at Ito, who shrugged. Minho walked over to Noroi and knelt down. "Let's hope he's not a heavy as he looks," he muttered,and closed Gray's eyes. Then, he carefully hooked his hands under the back of his knees and neck and picked him up.

Gray was indeed heavy, but not as heavy as Minho had expected. He glanced around and realized everyone else had started to follow the strange girl with pigtails. Internally shrugging, he too trailed after her.

* * *

><p>"Miss, your fax has arrived."<p>

She glanced up from her desk at her servant who stood holding a bundle of paper. "Thank you. Just put it on my desk, would you." The servant nodded curtly and placed the papers in a neat stack on her desk. "You may go now." The servant gave another curt nod then scurried out of the room, closing the grand doors behind them.

She sighed as she grabbed a paper from the stack. "They've been really piling it on haven't they," she muttered to herself. Running a hand through her blue tinted black hair, she began to read over the document.

_No new observations in Fiore. All guilds show regular behavior. Magic Council has made no new elections-_

Someone cleared their throat. She looked up and blinked in surprise. "You again."

"That's not a polite way to greet your sister_,_ Shion."

Shion sighed, "What is it, Yui?" Yui didn't answer, instead walking up to the desk and slamming her hands down on it. "We found them," she said seriously. Shion raised a brow. "_We?_"

"That's right. Isn't it great," Yui said excitedly, ignoring her question. "We can finally see big sis again!"

Shion stayed silent. "What? What's wrong?" Yui asked uncertainly. "It's too dangerous," Shion said after a long silence. Yui stared at her. "Don't you remember the last time you raced after her without thinking," Shion scolded lightly. "And who's fault was that," Yui spat with sudden venom. For a moment, anger twisted Shion's thin lips into a scowl. But just as quickly as it came, it was gone.

"Astrid has been missing for far too long! Don't you want to see her?" Yui demanded, her voice rising.

"You always get like this over her-"

"Maybe because she's my _sister-_"

"You know what I mean."

Yui pursed her lips and just glared into her older sister's eyes in silence. Shion held her venomous gaze steadily. After a few moments, Yui exasperated, throwing her hands in the air. "You know what- I'm doing this without you." Shion made a sound like a snort, "You know you can't get far by yourself. You still need someone to accompany you like a child would."

Yui turned toward the door, not looking back, and said, "I'm not just a _child._"

Without another word, she exited the room. Shion waited until the enormous doors closed before burying her head in her hands. "What the hell…" she muttered. "Garry, how in the world did you control temper like _that_?"

* * *

><p>Komotori emerged from the bush first, looking triumphant. "I trust that you succeeded," Archi inquired. His partner gave a triumphant smile and, as if on cue, Astrid and the others came crashing through the bush rather ungracefully.<p>

"I think a thorn got me in the leg," Ito muttered. Archi raised a brow at their appearances. "You guys look like shit," Daiki remarked. "Thanks," Astrid said flatly. "Have a seat," Archi said, gesturing to a nearby mossy log. "You can just put your dead weight on the ground wherever you like."

Ito shrugged and seated herself on the moss covered log. After a moment, Noroi and Ayano joined her. Minho seated himself atop another nearby log and lay Gray down at his feet.

"Who are you?" Astrid asked warily. "We're the ones that saved your asses from that Astoben back there," Komotori said stiffly. Ito raised a brow and crossed her legs. "Really? Because I seem to recall Astrid here destroying it quite brutally," she quipped. Komotori snorted, "Do you really think someone like her could destroy one of those things in _one shot?" _

"Hey," Astrid cut in, "I'm standing right here, y'know." Komotori barely glanced at her. "_You don't say." _

Astrid narrow her eyes at the snarky girl, but didn't retort. Instead, she seated herself next to Ayano with a huff. "That's what I thought," Komotori sniffed. "I think your friend is waking up," Archi said suddenly. All heads swiveled to Gray who was indeed shifting his body to sit up. Ayano was on him in an instant, tackling him in a fierce hug that had him back on the ground.

"Thank God, you're alright," she whispered. Gray just blinked groggily at her. Astrid walked over, knelt down and hugged him without a word. "Well, isn't this touching," Komotori commented. The small crowd that had gathered around Gray simply ignored her. "Are you okay?" Ayano asked gently. Gray once again stared at her without responding. "Can you hear us?" Astrid asked slowly.

Gray blinked. "Yes," he said dazedly. "What's the last thing you can remember?" Minho asked.

"Fog. Lots of fog," Gray said. Astrid nodded. That much was accurate. "Noroi, you said you had an idea if what happened to him, right?" Ayano said suddenly. "What? Oh, yeah," the younger girl said, surprised at being addressed. "Well, I can't be sure about this, but I think whatever happened to him had to do with the illusions he saw while dealing with the all know Sin, right?"

The group nodded. "Then, have any of you heard of someone called 'The Mistress'?"

* * *

><p><strong>Merry Christmas guys! I know Christmas is already over for some of you, but it's still the 25th where I live so it counts. I was originally gonna make an interview special with Astrid, but I'll just have to do that for New Years. Also, for the New Year, I'm going to try to start setting deadlines for myself again. Probably not weekly, but at least bi-monthly or something like that. I think this might be my longest chapter yet at about 1300 words. I really need to get my thoughts together to finish this story. I hate what I started with because none of it makes any sense now, but I'm determined to finish this before I make a rewrite! <strong>


	27. Important Information (Update)

Hey guys. As you can tell, I've been insanely inactive on these stories lately. The reason for this is being busy as well as being completely unmotivated to write for the story as it is. Looking back at my previous chapters and writing and desperately trying to put the pieces back together, I've discovered that the "plot" I'd established is simply too scattered and inconsistent for the current me to work with. My skills have greatly improved in writing from the time I first began this story and those two skill levels clash horribly in this story. So, instead of making half hearted promises to update more often, which I've failed several times in doing, I'll be completely honest and tell you this;

**I'm discontinuing this story.** Yes, it is unfortunate, but that's the way it has to be. The story as it is and the lack of any recent feedback has been too much.

I'm not sure if I will continue my other story, the prequel to this, either. Everything is too scrambled and while that one is slightly better written, I still have to go and revise many things.

I might come back to the story someday, with a clear plot and end game as well as properly written characters. I love my OCs too much to let them go, so don't worry about someone suddenly being gone. I will leave this version of the story here for reference and as a memento of sorts. I doubt any of you will so much as respond to this. Thank you all for reading, favoriting and following this story thus far.


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